


Seeking Home

by kaynibbler16



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-15
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2017-12-15 02:28:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 49,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/844272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaynibbler16/pseuds/kaynibbler16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Standing on that bay after the Battle of Canary Wharf, when Rose and the Doctor said their final goodbyes; Rose lied. Or more accurately, she was unaware that she had lied. Rose was indeed pregnant that day, but it would prove not to be a normal pregnancy. The child would be extraordinary; blood of the Bad Wolf and the Oncoming Storm in her veins. This is her story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a Doctor/Rose story, but the main focus in the beginning will surround the Doctor and my OC. Basically this story ignores the last part of Series 4 for many reasons (mostly because of the Daleks), but you will find out. Feedback is always appreciated. Enjoy.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

Massive skyscrapers stretched towards the horizon, the glow of the city drowning out the starlight. Sitting alone on a park bench overlooking the metropolis was a young looking woman dressed in dirty jeans, combat boots and a large leather jacket that hung off her frame; a black satchel bag draped over her shoulder. Her messy brown hair was pulled into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck; her complexion sallow and withdrawn. Homeless to the passerby and it wasn't too far off the mark.

Home, the woman thought dryly.

She used to have one, long ago, back when things were simple. Back when she knew who she was, what she was. But that all disappeared and she just became another lost soul in the universe with no home.

Alone.

It seemed so long ago when everything changed.

If she really thought about it, she'd only been a child then. Young and naïve; innocent about the cruelties of the universe. That had all been dashed the moment she realized that she wasn't the same as everyone else.

It was only innocent comments at first.

Oh, she's just so smart.

Brilliant for her age.

A young scientist in the making.

But it didn't last; fear did that.

She's not normal.

A complete freak!

That's not possible, nobody's that intelligent.

That's just inhuman!

Her mother did the best she could to shield her from them; from all the hateful people who thought that she was nothing more than a freak of nature. However, it took its toll on her mother; her friends ostracized and ridiculed her for having such a "strange" child.

But her mother would just smile and tell them that they were the strange ones. Her mother had been appalled that they would have the audacity to attack her child just because they were scared of what they didn't understand.

Besides, she didn't need "friends" who would dare insult her child.

And every day since then, that same child strove to be even half the woman her mother was. Her mother was loving and compassionate; always telling her not to hide her intelligence. "You're brilliant," her mother would say, "and only the ignorant could not understand that."

From then on, she worked even harder. Reading more, usually several books a day. She would learn as much as she could, whenever she could. Anything to prove that she wouldn't let anyone determine her self-worth; that was hers, and hers alone to decide.

"Never again Freya," her mother told her, "never again try to dumb yourself down for people like that. It's okay to be scared. Everyone gets scared, but you have so much to offer, love. So much. You just need the courage to stand up for what you believe in. And sometimes, that may mean standing alone, but never forget this. Never forget that I will always, always believe in you. You will never really be alone, so don't fear it. You are strong, so much stronger than you think and I know you can be great. You will accomplish great things when the right time comes. So don't be afraid to stand up and fight for what you believe in, because I believe in you."

A light pinging noise roused Freya from her thoughts, her "Time Jumper," as she dubbed her little invention, was almost ready to be used again.

Freya knew that she didn't have much time left, if she didn't find "him" soon she might never see her mother again.

Those bastards, Freya sneered.

Cold rage filled her as she thought of everything that had happened in the last year. Everything had been fine, great even. Freya and her mother may have just been getting by, but she didn't mind so much because they were still together. After losing her uncle to old age they decided it best to leave Earth behind; there was nothing left for them there anyway. Torchwood was no longer under the Tyler family's management once Tony died and they were no longer protected from investigation by the Institute. Thus, leaving for another world was the best option. Space travel still being rather rudimentary at the time didn't make it easy to get off planet, but somehow they managed.

They bounced between human space-colonies for about century or so before they found an alien planet where they could start anew. For a few decades everything had been great, her mother found work as a pilot for short route cargo ships. Freya spent most of her time working in a mechanic's shops; she found repairing rather enjoyable.

But that all changed when "They" showed up.

Freya had no idea who "they" were or even what "they" were.

All she knew was that "they" were smart.

Terrifyingly intelligent.

Intelligent enough to notice that Freya and her mother did not fit in with the rest of that universe. Freya knew that her mother and herself had not originated from the dimension they lived in. "Pete's World" was what her mum had often referred to Earth as.

"Like our world," her mother would say, "but different. Here Britain has a president, but in our Britain had a Prime Minister. Things are just slightly different here."

Thinking of her mother brought on a fresh wave of despair. Freya was terrified that she would never see her mother again.

Her amazing, resilient, happy mother. They both had lost so much and they couldn't afford to lose each other.

No, Freya thought, I will figure this out. I will save her, I just need him.

Him.

Her mum always referred to this "him," whoever he was.

"You must find him, Freya, you have to! He is called the Doctor. Don't forget! He is only the one who can help. Find him. Find him, Freya!" They were last words she heard from her mother, right before she shoved a key into Freya's hands and activated the dimension jumper on Freya's wrist that shot her across the Void. Back to her mother's home dimension; alone. The dimension jumper was another invention that she and her mother had been working on together. Freya had desperately hoped they would use it together, but it could only sustain one.

Her mother had made sure that "They" would never get their hands on Freya.

Reaching up to the necklace hanging round her neck, Freya traced her thumb over the key.

It was cool to the touch, its edges worn from years of handling but the engraving was still there.

The engraving of a rose.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the first chapter. Feedback is wonderful so please leave any comments or criticisms. Enjoy! =D   
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

"YOU PROMISED!" Freya screamed; her stomach churned viciously as she finally realized what her mother's plan was. "YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN'T LEAVE ME! YOU PROMISED I WOULDN'T BE ALONE!" Freya was sobbing, only able to watch as her mother tore her fragile world apart. The life they had carefully built together had completely collapsed and now they were on the run. Everything had been fine. They had been enjoying a little bit of normalcy in their lives for once and they were happy.

Were happy. Past tense now.

Just for a while, Freya thought their days of running in fear were over. No longer did they have to look over their shoulder for someone who might want to use their abilities for personal gain. No longer did they have to hide their looks to avoid being recognized. No longer did they have to be afraid of losing each other. They thought they were safe.

They were fools.

Once those creatures caught their scent there was nowhere to hide; nowhere to run. They followed them wherever they went, always just a step behind. Now Freya and her mother had run out of places to go. They creatures decimated everything they touched. Death and destruction followed Freya and her mother wherever they went and the toll proved to be too much for either one of them.

Freya lowered her voice to a dead monotone. "I am not a child. You can't simply tell me what to do and just expect me to take it. We fight together, mum. We never leave the other behind that is what you said! I am not leaving without you. We only have each other. You're all I have left." Her voice broke on those last words. Tears burned in the backs of her eyes; her throat constricted. She could barely breathe through her anguish.

This wasn't fair, not now, not after everything they'd been through. She didn't want to be alone. She didn't know how.

Freya was terrified. Everything was spiraling out of control and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Her so-called "brilliant" mind couldn't help them; the calculations needed to develop a strong enough weapon to stop these creatures were far too complicated even for her. There was no one to help them now. Freya had never felt so worthless; so useless to her mother.

She was supposed to be the smart one, the clever one, but that didn't matter now.

Genius that she was, it just wasn't enough.

"I know and I'm sorry, so very sorry, but they cannot find you." Her mother's voice was thick with emotion. "This is the only thing I can do to protect you, Freya. They would destroy you; everything that you are would be sacrificed for their ambitions and I cannot allow that. I will not let that happen to you." Her mother was steadfast, unrelenting as she punched the final coordinates into the dimension jumper. Once she made up her mind, Freya's mother never changed it. That was one of the best qualities that her mother had always been praised for because she never gave up on anything or anyone.

Defender of the Earth, a nickname Freya's mother rightfully earned.

Defender of the Earth, or as she was more widely known as, Rose Tyler.

Rose Marion Tyler, daughter of Pete and Jackie Tyler, was raised on the Powell Estate. She spent the first two decades of her life there until she met someone; someone fantastic. A man who whisked her away to see the universe and it changed her mother completely.

Rose spoke as though the man hung the moon. Freya knew that her mother would gladly take her place if she could only see that man again and that's why Freya knew this was so difficult for her mother. Rose was giving up her chance to see him again for her daughter.

"But that is not your choice, mum. I can't leave you behind. You can't expect me to just let you go." Freya's voice strained as she tried not to cry.

"Do you think this is any easier for me, Freya!" Rose finally turned to face her daughter; the pain of their encroaching separation clear on her face. "Do you have any idea how hard this is for me to let YOU go?! To lose the only thing that has kept me sane all these years. The only thing of h-" Rose cut herself off, swallowing her last words.

Freya didn't have to hear it to know what her mother was going to say.

Him.

Rose never told Freya who her father was, but it didn't take a genius like herself to figure it out. Her mother was always talking about him, always reminiscing about their fantastic adventures. Whenever Freya asked who he was her mother would smile sadly. "He was the most extraordinary man I have ever met; he was brilliant just like you. So smart, but compassionate. He couldn't stand to see innocent people suffer and he spent his life trying to protect them. That's not to say he didn't make mistakes, but we all do. He always tried to fix them. Right the wrongs." Her mother's expression would turn wistful. "He was rude," she would laugh, "and not ginger!"

Her mother calmed herself before she spoke again. "I don't know how I would have survived this world without you here with me. You gave me a reason to hold on, to not only survive but live." Her mother walked over to Freya and cupped her face in her hands. "Freya, you are so much like him, you know. So curious and perceptive. You see such wonder in the universe and always try to find something new to discover. You make people better, Freya. You made me better; you made me want to keep fighting." Rose touched her forehead to Freya's, closing her eyes. "And that is why this is killing me inside, because I have to let you go now. Let you save the universe but not be there with you, helping. This is going to have to be your fight now, Freya, I can't come with you. Not this time." Stepping back, Rose opened her eyes and Freya watched her mother steel her expression. Despite this, she knew her mother well enough to know that she was only hiding her real feelings. She had seen her mother make that face several times before.

"Freya, these creatures will not stop until they've secured both you and I so they can crack open the walls between the universes. They want control and somehow they are convinced that we are crucial to their plans. We may no longer officially work for Torchwood, but I am still your commanding officer and you will do as you're told. Understood?" Rose demanded in her most authoritative voice.

Freya calmed herself now, there was no argument anymore. When her mother had made a final decision, that decision did not change for anything.

Not tears, not pleas.

Nothing.

Freya reluctantly nodded and saluted.

"Yes, mum." Freya looked Rose in the eye, every emotion guarded lest one of them breakdown completely. They no longer had time for that.

"Right." Rose stopped, just staring at Freya. This could possibly be the last time they ever saw each other again. Her mother did not let down her guard, but Freya instinctively knew what her mother was feeling, because it was everything Freya was feeling as well.

Anxiety, fear, loss, anger, sadness and yet, hope. Hope for another moment, another day when they see each other once more.

Freya took a step towards her mother again, soaking in the possibility that this might be their last moment together. Rose broke first, no longer able to restrain herself. She surged forward and embraced Freya, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. Freya wrapped her arms around mother's shoulders and leaned her head against her mother's.

They only had minutes now, Freya needed to use her dimension jumper to get to the other universe and Rose needed to escape while she still could. "They" were almost there. Freya could feel the creatures at the edges of her consciousness; feel their oily greed for power.

"Mum," Freya said softly, trying not to startle her grieving mother, "we need to go. What do I need to do?"

Rose pulled away and let her emotions peek through her hardened exterior. She ran her fingers through Freya's hair and cupped her cheek again. She was about to speak when the entire room shuddered violently, almost throwing them to the ground. They both cursed loudly.

Time's up. It was now or never.

Rose turned to Freya. "Freya, listen to me! Listen to me very carefully; this is the single most important piece of information you're going to need. Find him, Freya! Find him, find the Doc-"

"Oi!"

Freya jumped violently off the bed, adrenaline coursing through her veins. The dream, no, memory still playing in her head. She turned towards the owner of the voice that had rudely awakened her.

A man in a uniform was shining a light in her eyes, partially blinding her.

"Yeah?" Freya was still not fully awake yet and she really didn't want to start anything with the local police. The police officer lowered his flashlight and stared at Freya.

"What're you doing here? This house is private property, no squatters allowed." He looked at Freya's things, probably looking to see if she carried any weapons.

Great; just what she needed, a cop.

"Sorry, mate, thought it was abandoned and I don't really have anywhere else to go." Freya hoped the man would just let her go with a warning, but the officer seemed a bit more skittish than she'd have liked. She had seen types like him before, hell, she'd trained them. Back when she still worked for Torchwood she was one of the toughest agents to impress; Torchwood demanded only the best so she made sure only the best passed.

This guy would have been one of the rejects. He was too tense and unpredictable; maybe not so much to the naked eye but Freya was telepathic and could feel his emotions. She sensed that he would have fared better at a desk job than this, but she would have to earn his trust if she wanted to leave here not in handcuffs. She tried to look as pitiful as possible in front of the man, hunched over a bit and put on her best act.

The officer relented a little, thinking she was helpless and homeless. He lowered his flashlight a bit more and spoke. "You still can't be here. I am going to have to ask you come with me."

Damn, Freya thought. She didn't want to draw attention to herself but now she had no choice. Getting arrested was never really a problem; she was pretty good at escaping anyway. However, now was not the time for fun and games and getting arrested was no longer an entertaining past time. She had too much to do than to waste time here.

"Ah, I thought this might come up. I'm afraid I will have to decline your offer, sir." Freya stood up to her full height, letting the meek act fall away.

She was a former Torchwood agent, one of the best and she wasn't going to let some newbie police officer intimidate her.

As if he could, Freya snorted haughtily. She'd learned several forms of hand-to-hand combat, a few she invented herself. If she needed to Freya would give this man a demonstration.

"Excuse me! Ma'am, I am going to have to arrest you for trespassing." The officer went on the defensive now. Freya rolled her eyes. The man was rather young and probably very inexperienced. She was surprised that he didn't have a more experienced officer with him; this was bad protocol.

Oh joy, she thought, what's he going to do, throw his game controller at me. Freya was well over a couple hundred years old; the man looked to be in his twenties. A child compared to her.

"No, you won't. Kid you really don't want to do that, I may not look like much but I guarantee I won't go quietly." Freya taunted. Okay, that may not have been the best idea as the next moment the officer reached for his gun.

He now recognized her as a threat.

Before the man could raise his gun fully, Freya launched herself forward and easily twisted the gun out of his hand and slid it across the floor. Well out of the officer's reach. Pinning him against a wall, Freya leaned in close.

"You really shouldn't have done that. I was trying to be reasonable, but seeing as that didn't work now I'm going to have to do something that I really don't want to." Keeping him pinned, Freya reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a very small spray bottle. Twisting the top, she held the man's head in place against the wall and sprayed it right under his nose. The man gagged for a moment before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

He was out cold.

"Sorry." Gently laying the officer on the floor, Freya found a waded up piece of cloth and put his head on it. It was the least she could do considering she knocked him out. He was going to have a killer headache when he woke up, not to mention short term memory loss. This little concoction Torchwood had brewed up worked wonders when used properly; it saved her life more than a few times.

Walking back over to her stuff lying on the floor, Freya pulled her coat on and dug around in her satchel. When she found the coordinates sheet, she put the numbers into the time jumper and waited for it to fully activate. Some of the parts were starting to wear already and Freya didn't know if she could get the parts she needed in this era. She could only hope she made it to 21st century Cardiff, a place her mother said might be a good place to find the Doctor, before it shorted out.

The device pinged, it was ready. Closing her eyes, Freya prayed this worked.

With a bright flash of light, she was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~

After dropping off Jack and Martha, the Doctor spent the next few weeks in the TARDIS trying to repair the damage she'd suffered from being turned into a paradox machine. Everything that happened during the Year That Never Was weighed heavily on the Doctor's mind. He couldn't save his oldest friend; his oldest enemy.

The Master.

The Doctor knew that it wasn't his fault that he died; there was nothing he could have done to force the Master to regenerate. However, he still blamed himself and now he found that he was truly alone. There was no one else.

Alone again. Just like after the Time War.

He couldn't save the Time Lords then and he still couldn't save the only other one besides himself. The Master may have been insane, but better an insane Time Lord compared to no other Time Lord at all. For that single year the Doctor felt another mind other than his own in his head; it was a mercy compared to the dead silence that now consumed his life.

Nothing.

Empty.

Alone.

He knew that there would never be anyone else to fill that gaping silence as there was no other telepath strong enough.

No more Time Lords.

No one left.

Well, that wasn't exactly true, for a while he had someone who made the silence dim for a while. Someone who had brought so much life to the TARDIS that he didn't feel alone anymore. They had been fantastic together, everyday a new adventure. When she smiled he felt his whole world light up. She was his rock, his foundation, his home aside from the TARDIS. She was pink and yellow and completely fantastic. His Rose.

For the longest time he tried to maintain a certain level of platonic distance between them, but after a nasty adventure on an impossible planet that orbited a black hole that distance disappeared. He needed her so badly after that. He couldn't let his fear of losing her get in the way of living in the moment. After that, he took every chance he got to show her just how important she was to him. Just how ingrained in his world she was.

And then she was gone.

Torn from his world, taking his hearts with her. As he leaned against that white wall and tried to project his very consciousness through the Void, he thought for a brief moment that he could feel her on the other side. It was impossible, but the feeling was still there.

It was odd actually, since the breech collapsed in on itself he shouldn't be able to sense anything and yet, he did. It was small, barely noticeable but still there all the same.

At the time he just brushed it off as merely an echo of the breech collapsing. He pushed away all thoughts of that accursed white wall, which seemed to mock him, and moved on as best he could.

He found a hole between the universes, big enough to send a small projection through. Those last few moments he spent with Rose on that beach nearly killed him. Her confession of love only proved what he already knew. They never spoke those words to each other when they shared a bed, but they were there in everything they did.

However, it was a statement that Rose made before her confession that almost shattered the Doctor's hearts.

"There's five of us now; Mum, Dad, Mickey," she paused here, as though not sure how to word her next few words, "and the baby."

A baby.

"You're not…" For a brief moment he really didn't know what to do. His mind filled with possibilities; a half Gallifreyan child. The possibility of having child with Rose took his breath away.

And then he suddenly he couldn't breathe.

He wouldn't have a child with Rose; Rose would have the child on her own. He would never see his child, ever. Not with him on the other side of the Void.

And then she dashed any hopes he might have had.

"No," she'd said, "It's mum."

It hurt, he'd realized, it really hurt. For a moment, however brief it might have been, he'd believed that he wouldn't have been the last Gallifreyan alive. He hadn't completely wiped out his species because now new life had been created.

And then, nothing. His hope was crushed, he was crushed. Not only had he lost Rose, but he'd lost the possibility of sharing a child with her.

Rose would have been an amazing mother.

The Doctor sat down on the jump seat as he tried to dispel the painful thoughts and figure out what he was to do next. Not even a moment after he sat down the entire console room was rocked as something broke through the TARDIS' shields, knocking the Doctor promptly to the floor.

"What?! What?!" The Doctor squeaked. He moved around the console room to see what exactly had managed to hit his TARDIS.

Sitting among the debris on the floor was a lifesaver with the word Titanic emboldened on its side. He looked up at the ship inside his ship.

The Doctor was flabbergasted.

"What?"


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I am really sorry this is so late, but here is the new chapter. Feedback is always appreciated and if you see any mistakes, let me know. This story is un-betaed.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

Landing rather inelegantly in a pile rubbish, Freya dug herself out of the mass of trash bags and brushed her clothes off.

“Next time I do maintenance on this stupid time jumper I am going to make sure I install a feature that purposely avoids landing in disgusting places,” she muttered irritably, picking off a moldy banana peel from her jacket. She grimaced. Freya surveyed her surroundings, taking in the residential area she seemed to have landed in. 

Strange, this didn’t really look like the part of Cardiff she was aiming for. 

She had hoped that she would be closer to the city, but she’d take what she could get. Freya didn’t want to overstress her time jumper; she only wanted to use it when she needed to. Wondering what year she was in now, last time it had been 2012 or so judging by what she could sense in the timelines, she started wandering down the street towards a large hill a few blocks away. From there she might be able to determine how far away from the city she was.

Aside from her natural ability for telepathy, she had always been able to sense “time” in a way, but it was rather dull and obscured while she was living in her former universe. Ever since she landed in her mother’s home universe it was as though the fog over the timelines cleared and she was able to see the different pasts, presents, and futures of people and events that she had not been able to before. It was strange and so overwhelming at first that she couldn’t compare it to anything that she had ever experienced. It hurt to see so many events change rapidly in her mind’s eye, most of which did not make any sense. 

Not that it really had before.

But in her old universe usually only large events would stand out and she was pretty certain of what she was experiencing. Now it was almost too much at times; almost every possibility a timeline could take was running through her head and she felt overwhelmed by it all. 

And the headaches were killer.

Concentrating, Freya pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on where she was. It was cold, probably late fall or early spring. There were some people out and about so it was most likely late evening. Arriving at the hill, Freya looked around for any trespassing signs. 

Getting caught by the police was not on the agenda tonight. 

Not seeing any, she continued on. The climb didn’t take too long and when she almost reached the top, Freya looked up for a moment at the night sky for the first time in what felt like ages. She stopped and gasped a bit. Although it was diminished by the light pollution from the city, she could see a few constellations here or there because of her superior vision. 

It never failed to take her breath away.

She could not remember the last time she’d taken a moment to just look at the night sky. Not when her mother was not there to point out the different places she’d been and tell her about the different adventures she’d had with the Doctor, at least in this universe. Those moments were always the most memorable. A rock suspended around a black hole without falling in, dogs with no noses, a frozen ocean thousands of miles long. 

Every story her mother told was just another adventure. 

Even if this worked, it hurt knowing that she might not ever see mother again.

Huffing a bit, she reached the top finally.

And was taken by surprise to find an older gentleman sitting there with a telescope.

“Oh! I’m sorry. Didn’t think anyone would be up here. I didn’t mean to, um, well I’ll just…” Gesturing behind her, Freya blushed a bit in embarrassment at having wandered onto someone’s property.

The older man smiled. “Nonsense. Public property, miss. Besides, I’m not supposed to be here either. I snuck away for some stargazing, myself.” 

Freya could not explain it, but the old man reminded her of Pete for some reason; especially when he and Jackie had a little row about something or other and he escaped to his little hiding place. She could always find him in his workshop in the spare building a couple hundred feet behind her grandparents’ mansion. Freya loved to sneak in there whenever Pete was not around, but of course, he eventually noticed that some of his inventions were gaining some interesting tune ups when he was not there.

Drove him spare, it did.

When he’d discovered that it was her, instead of getting upset Pete made a proposition. So long as he was in the room, she was allowed down there any time of the day, unless he indicated otherwise. His “otherwise” times were when he had an alien artifact from Torchwood that he wanted to take a look at. Nothing dangerous, but possibly useful for some invention he had planned for Torchwood. 

Jackie was not a fan of such technology being so close to the home, but Rose and Mickey were often around when he was working on something.

Mickey.

There was someone she had not thought about in such a long time. Unlike the rest of her family and friends, Mickey had not died of old age. In fact, there was no record of Mickey dying at all.   
Though her mother never liked to talk about it, an accident had occurred at Torchwood one day when she was rather young. 

She was only seven when it happened.

Rose cried for weeks afterwards. Ironically, the incident had involved a primitive version of the dimension jumper. The Dimension Cannon was what they had labeled the project and it did exactly as it said. It was designed to launch the wearer across the Void into the surrounding dimensions, but it was very difficult to navigate. The wearer would never know which dimension they landed in.

And it was also incredibly unstable.

They never got it to work properly. The cannon needed a hole in the skin of the universe that stayed open consistently, but that just did not happen. Any tears, no matter how large they were, usually closed within minutes of opening. So when they discovered a tear that opened up close to Torchwood, talk about convenience, they were on it within minutes. They’d barely gotten to the tear when it started to close and Mickey, against Pete’s wishes, activated the cannon and shot himself across the Void.

They never heard from him again after that. When Rose explained to her that Mickey was not coming back, she did not leave her room for a few days. 

Mickey had been the closest thing to a father that Freya had. 

Before using the Dimension Cannon, he and Freya usually did everything in their power to annoy her mother, especially if it involved making a large mess. 

Pulling her thoughts away from the past, Freya addressed the man waiting patiently for her response. He was looking at her quizzically before she finally spoke.

“Oh, well then, um, do you mind if I might sit here a bit then? Could use some rest.” She did not want to make the old man uncomfortable, considering he was being kind to her.

“Of course, dear! I don’t mind at all. Sorry, I don’t have an extra chair; otherwise I would offer you one. I have a blanket if you’d like to use that since it’s not that chilly.” He reached around for a plain red and black blanket sitting just behind his chair and stood to spread it out next to him.

Freya smiled to herself, he obviously preferred some company and who was she to resist someone with a telescope. She could imagine him spending hours out here stargazing by himself; must get lonely. 

She certainly knew that feeling very well.

“Well, I thank you. Haven’t had much time for rest, me.” She plopped down on the blanket and dropped her bag between them before leaning back on her hands and stretching her legs out in front of her.

“Really,” the man asked curiously, “you sound rather exhausted.”

Freya hummed noncommittally; she had not finished resting at all when that police officer interrupted her nap. She sagged a bit.

“Well, haven’t had much rest recently. Been kind of on the move a lot.” She did not understand why she was discussing this with someone whose name she did not even know.

The gentleman looked curious but did not press the issue, which she was thankful for. Talking about the last few months was not something she wanted to discuss.

“Well, I hope you don’t mind a little company while you rest. Name’s Wilfred Mott, but most everyone calls me Wilf.” The older gentleman smiled down at her from his chair as he held out his hand to Freya.

Taking it, Freya gave him her biggest Tyler-smile. “Freya Tyler,” she laughed a bit as she shook Wilf’s hand.

“That’s unique; your parents big fans of mythology, then?” Wilf chuckled as Freya barked out a laugh.

“Not quite,” she liked Wilf, he really did remind her of Pete, “actually, it was a joke by one of my mum’s friends, but she thought it was such a fitting name, given her past. It’s somehow related to where my biological father was from. She never really talked about it, which was frustrating.” 

“She must have had an interesting past, I take it?”

“Oh, like no other.” Freya was thankful that Wilf seemed to be genuinely kind. For some reason, talking about her life with him seemed right; it was exactly what she needed. It had been so long since she had someone to talk to.

“She’s amazing, my mum.” A wistful grin crossed her face as she recalled some of her fondest memories with her mother. “She’d talk about the stars all the time. Wanting to travel to different planets, see what other cultures might exist on other worlds, maybe even try some foods while she was there.”

“She sounds amazing. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to set foot on another world. To meet some actual aliens. Maybe some nice ones, too. We’ve had some rather recent incidents that weren’t so pleasant.” And he continued on and on, and Freya listened with genuine curiosity, chiming in once in a while. She also discovered that she was actually in Chiswick instead of Cardiff, much to her dismay, but she wanted to stop for a while anyway and this was a perfect opportunity. Wilf talked very animatedly about traveling through the universe and all the things he’d like to see. Freya could not suppress a smile as she watched him; he was a spry old man that was for sure.

“—and maybe humans will meet a species that could live for thousands of years. Imagine that; thousands! Wonder what they would look like?”

“Oh I’d imagine they’d have quite a few wrinkles by that point. You never know until you see them.” She stared at all the stars, remembering the first time her mother described the sheer vastness of space. Telling her stories of all the cultures she’d experienced and all the planets she’d saved. Freya would find her way to back to her mother somehow.

“I drove my mum mad sometimes.” Freya told him, suddenly changing the subject. She saw Wilf listening intently as she spoke. Again, she thought about how nice it felt to have someone to listen to her. “I was never the most behaved child.” 

Wilf scoffed out a laugh. “Not many children admit how much they drive their parents spare. I know my daughter always gave me trouble, since the day she was born. Same with my granddaughter Donna. Oh, my Donna, she was a little general when she was a child. Always bossing the neighborhood kids around,” he fiddled with his telescope as he spoke, “but she always said what was on her mind, she did. Never let anyone get the best of her, until recently. But, well, her fiancé was a right git.” He turned from his telescope for a moment to look at Freya. “I’ve no idea why I’m telling you this; it’s usually something that I’d keep from talking about. You don’t have superpowers to make me say personal stuff, do you? Not an alien are ya’?”

Normally Freya would have panicked at the insinuation of her “alieness,” but she could tell by the humor in Wilf’s eyes that he was just teasing. Good, it would be awful if she had to wipe the memory of such a kind person. Plus, she was running low on supplies.

Laughing, Freya ran her fingers through her hair as she pulled the hair tie out, realizing how much of a mess she must look like; she’d been sleeping rough and only had few chances to properly shower. Thankfully, she had one earlier that morning at a truck-stop in America; never mind the strange looks she got. 

“Nah, just your average weary traveler. Been looking for someone, but still haven’t found him yet.” She leaned back on the blanket to gaze at the stars above; counting the different constellations she remembered from her universe and some she’d never seen before. Oh, how she missed traveling the stars and walking among the new and different worlds she’d discovered. 

She shared that trait with her mother.

Wilf looked at her in surprise. “Really? You sound like my granddaughter. She met an amazing man only to turn down his offer to travel. She regrets it now. He had a very strange name too, apparently called himself the D—“

“Oi!” A shrill voice startled Freya from her relaxed position; she had not even heard them coming, which was unusual for her. It was frustrating just how loud this universe was, all the timelines melding and twisting together, pulling her focus away from reality. 

It was very distracting.

A tall, ginger haired woman came striding up the hill, staring daggers at Freya. “And who are you?” The woman questioned suspiciously. She had a hard look in her eye, very stubborn from what Freya could pick up from her attitude.

It was a good thing Freya was so adept at reading people; it saved her arse more times than she could count.

“Now, now, Donna, she’s admiring the stars with me.” Wilf attempted to pacify his granddaughter, as Freya remembered him mentioning her name, and stood as Donna continued giving Freya the evil eye.

“Admiring the stars?” Donna’s gaze faltered a bit as she took in Freya’s appearance; she probably mistook her for some runaway. Not hard to do given that Freya could still pass for a teenager if need be. Still, there was something very strange about Donna. It was as if the timelines bent around her, as though she were a walking paradox or a fixed point. Time was both fluid and stagnant around her and it put Freya slightly on edge. She could feel the beginnings of one of her headaches pulling at the back of her skull.

That was interesting.

“Well, you should still be careful who meet up here, gramps.” The woman pulled out a thermos for her grandfather, handing it to him, and motioned for Freya to scoot over. Quirking up the side of her mouth, Freya moved closer to Wilf to allow Donna to sit next to her on the blanket.

“So, who are you anyway?” The redhead questioned, turning to face the young woman in beside her and Freya extended her hand in greeting.

“Freya Tyler, miss.” 

“Miss? What makes you think I’m a miss? Gramps, did you tell her about Lance?” Well one thing was for sure, there was never a dull moment with Donna. 

“What? Well, I mean, we got to talking and she, and we were talkin’ about family stuff and, well, it might have come up…” Wilf sort of trailed off at the stormy expression on Donna’s face.

Sensing the atmosphere, Freya tried to calm the woman. “I hope you’ll forgive me, I meant no harm. I was unaware of your marital status so I felt it was the best choice. I apologize.” Hoping that would salvage the situation, Freya was surprised when Donna started laughing.

“My god, you sound posh! You must be from a wealthy family.” Freya breathed a sigh of relief at Donna’s humor.

“Yeah, something like that, but a bit more complicated.” Donna raised an eyebrow at her, asking a silent question. “No, not crime related. More like politics and business.” 

Donna snorted. “Basically the same thing, really.”

Laughing, Freya explained a bit more. “At times, yeah, it does kind of feel like that, but my grandparents were different. My grandfather was a businessman and inventor. And my gran, well, the closest thing to a criminal life she ever had was her serial shopping habits.” Donna and Wilf laughed and smiled at her stories of her family life, seeing the vivacious woman lying beneath the exhausted exterior.

The three of them continued talking for a long time and Freya enjoyed the company of complete strangers who already felt like old friends. Donna talked about her new job at Health & Safety and Wilf talked more about the strange occurrences that occurred every Christmas, like a group of space tourists that, he swore on his life, vanished right in front of him last Christmas Eve.

~~~~~~~

Pulling and twisting levers around the console, the Doctor activated the dematerialization sequence after dropping of Mr. Copper off to start his new life on Earth. The Doctor’s face was hard, devoid of emotion.

He failed again. 

Sure, he saved Earth from being destroyed by the space Titanic, but he could not save those he met about the doomed ship. Not the Van Hoffs, not Bannakaffalatta, and not Astrid. 

Astrid.

She would have been an excellent companion, excited to see the universe around her.

Didn’t matter, she was gone now but she saved them all.

The Doctor dragged his hands down his face, suppressing a shudder. He knew he should find something to distract him, but right now he just wanted to sit there and hurt for a bit.

He was exhausted.

He’d see about that Adipose company later.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 3. This story is un-betaed, if there are any mistakes or errors please let me know. Otherwise, leave any comments or criticisms; I love feedback. :) Enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

They talked for the longest time, watching as the lights around the area turned out for the night. It had been such a long time for Freya; constantly being on the move made it difficult to get a moment's rest.

It was nice.

"So," Donna said, poking Freya in the shoulder, "did you have a job at one point or do you just wander around like a homeless person?"

Freya was so shocked by Donna's question that she started laughing. Wiping a stray tear from her eye, she nodded at Donna, but not before letting another little giggle slip out. "Wow, you are straight to the point."

Donna huffed. "Well, you don't seem like the type to stick with just one thing."

Freya blinked, confused by Donna's assessment; which, in all fairness, was pretty accurate. She really did not like being held down to one job. She liked her freedom; freedom to do anything at any point with no strings attached. Weeell maybe that wasn't completely true; a couple strings weren't too bad. She loved her family more than anything.

Smiling wistfully she said, "Yeah, I did. Have a job, that is. Worked at several places actually, but I never found anything that really…stuck. I mean, sometimes you stick with a job for a while but then, I guess, you just get bored. I loved the feel of a new place beneath my feet. New cultures, new people, a new sky. How could someone spend their life in just one place; the world is constantly changing. Tomorrow is gone before you even finish today."

Both Donna and Wilf gave her the most amazed looks.

"For someone so young, you are very wise," Wilf said, his eyes alight with wonder at this unusual young woman.

Freya turned her attention back to the stars, carefully thinking about her next words. Young? Hardly. She didn't know if what she had was wisdom or experience; it was possible that she was just jaded. Life was never easy for her or her mother. If anything, it was just a process of trial and error, but that's just life. Nothing came easy and you had to work for what you needed and even then the world could still come crashing down around you. It could rip all the happiness away in an instant.

Nothing was sacred, just temporary.

She frowned. "Well, wisdom is just experience, yeah? We all have that, just in different forms."

Donna smiled kindly. "Well said. Everyone wants to find their place in life. I guess it takes some of us a little longer to find it."

Freya could tell that Donna was someone who'd faced particular hardship just by the way she carried herself. She had so much to say and yet, no one would listen besides her granddad and a strange vagrant.

Freya understood that. She loved her mother more than anything else in her life, which really wasn't that much. And yet, there were things even her mother couldn't understand about her. Things that Freya tried so hard to explain, to understand, but it never worked. Her mother didn't see the universe the way she did; didn't see the timelines twisting or futures that would never happen.

She was alone in that regard.

Or maybe not. Maybe, if she found 'him,' maybe he could…help. Help her to understand what she couldn't. Why she saw the things she did. Helped her to understand why she heard others' thoughts and emotions all the time and if there was a way to make it easier. She wasn't expecting him to welcome her with open arms; after all, he had no idea that her mother had been pregnant when she last the Doctor. But maybe…no, now was not the time for sentimentalities. Her mother sent her here for a specific reason; a task that she was meant to accomplish. Maybe when they solve this, but until then she had her mission and she would see it through to the end.

Wilf yawned, trying to cover it so the other two wouldn't see.

"Alright gramps, I think it's time that you get some rest, otherwise mum'll be harping on you in the morning." Donna made to stand while Wilf grumbled about him 'being a grown man who did not need to babysat by his granddaughter' and 'Sylvia always harped on him.' Freya gathered her things together as well, checking her time jumper to see that it had charged up all the way while they were talking.

Donna watched her swing her bag on her shoulder after she tugged her jacket more closely around her. The older, but actually much younger, woman seemed at a loss for words, probably not sure how to say goodbye to Freya.

Taking pity on her, Freya gave her a warm grin. "Well, I feel quite a bit better and think it's time that I moved on. So much to do, so little time. Good luck with your new job at Health & Safety."

Donna gave her strange look, almost as though she were seeing someone else. "You, sometimes when you talk you sound like…" She didn't finish her sentence.

Freya was puzzled. "Sound like what?"

Shaking her head a bit, Donna just smiled. "Nothing, you just reminded me of someone there for moment. Anyway, um…if you don't have anywhere to go, I mean you look like you've been through hell and back…"

"Thanks." Freya snorted.

"Cheeky," Donna said, good-naturedly. "Well, if you don't have anywhere to stay tonight, our couch is open." Wilf nodded in agreement.

To say that she was touched would be an understatement. These two strangers, well not so much anymore, were kind enough to offer her a place to stay for the night and yet they barely knew her. Her mouth opened and closed for a few seconds before clearing her throat around the swell of emotion. "Oh, um well, that's, that's very, um…I have to…ugh…" Freya really didn't know what to say.

Donna and Wilf looked a bit crestfallen at her obvious attempts to kindly reject their offer. "Unless you have to get going, that is," Donna said.

Freya nodded, offering them a small smile. "I'm afraid so. There's so much I need to do and not much time to do it, but…" she paused for a moment, "thank you. I…I haven't had anyone ask me something like that since, well I really can't remember the last time. It means more than you know."

Wilf grinned and nodded. "If there's ever a time you need somewhere to rest again, I'll be up here, with an extra blanket. It's not much, but there's a place for you here."

Freya gave them the brightest smile that she hadn't used in such a long time. One that was eerily reminiscent of her mother's, with a tongue poking just past her teeth and a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

It was nice to have someone worry about her; someone to offer her refuge if she needed it. "Thank you," she said, from the bottom of her heart.

She waved goodbye to them both and carefully made her way back down the hill. Freya wasn't too far from Cardiff, definitely a lot closer now than she was in America. One quick trip with her time jumper should do it, so long as it held out. She found an alleyway not too far from where she left Wilf and Donna, though by now they were already gone. Pulling out her time jumper, she punched in the coordinates, waited a few seconds, and then activated it.

Freya felt the pull of the time jumper yanking her into the Time Vortex, but she couldn't see anything because her eyes were closed. She could sense that she was almost to her destination when an electric shock shot up her arm from the time jumper.

No. No no no no!

It was shorting out!

She felt like she was being torn in two. Every other sensation faded away as searing pain tore through her.

Oh god, she was going to die!

She couldn't fail! Not now, not when everything hung in the balance! Not when she needed to save her mother—

And then it all stopped. She hit the ground hard, not knowing where or when she was. Her eyesight was dimming fast as her consciousness faded. She tore the time jumper from her wrist as it continued to spark and emit a loud squealing noise. One last jolt of electricity and it went dead. Not a few seconds later, Freya collapsed on the ground in an unconscious heap.

The Doctor felt a brush of something at the back of his mind. He had been feeling it for a while now, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. It was small and weak; childlike. Only the strongest emotions came through. He had been analyzing the Adipose pill when he felt it again.

He'd felt it two days ago. There was happiness. Joy. Warmth. All these pleasant feelings that made him smile, even if he didn't who or what it was coming from. He should be worried.

But this time it was different; it felt panicked and in pain.

And then it was gone, as if it had never been.

He was worried now. He shouldn't be feeling anything in the TARDIS; she should be blocking out most external signals.

Whatever was causing this was strong enough to break through the TARDIS' shields, which was impossible. That could only happen if the TARDIS allowed it.

His mind was so absorbed in that spark of pain that his respiratory bypass kicked in. The Doctor took a deep breath as he came back to himself. That was strange.

He pondered over the little situation that he found himself in. There was no explanation as to why he was able to feel something so raw; that's what it was, a pure feeling. Like a child telepath, not used to shielding. Or, possibly a telepath that did not have strong shields. He was confused as to what or who it could be.

Well, he would deal with that problem later; right now he needed to focus on the Adipose situation. He was getting strange emissions from the building that Adipose Industries was using and the readings from the pill set him on edge. Something was going on and he was going to find out what.

Of course, all this would be a lot more enjoyable and helpful if he had someone to share it with.

Didn't matter.

He'd carry on just like he'd always done. Just like after losing Martha and Jack and Sarah Jane and Ro—

Best not to think about that now.

He set out his plans for infiltrating the building again tomorrow and finding out just what was going on within Adipose Industries.

She was having a dream again and she was strangely aware of this. That's a first. At least, she thinks she's dreaming.

She could be dead; bugger.

It was hard to tell where she was; only that it seemed vaguely familiar. Things started to come back into focus when she realized that she was standing, or was it sitting, in their old apartment on Rogemtotes Alpha. Her and her mum lived here when Freya was working as a mechanic at Forseta, the ship port that her mum docked out of. It was still pretty small at the time, after all it was only a little moon revolving around an inhospitable planet that she could not pronounce the name of.

She could see her mum attempting to cook in the kitchen, which is usually when Freya stepped in just in case. It wouldn't help to get kicked out of another place because of Rose's bad cooking. This was different though, not only was her mother cooking, but she was cooking rather well. Odd, very odd.

"Mum," Freya asked quietly. "Are you making something? Or, really, why are you making something?"

Her mother turned around to face her, but it wasn't her mother, not really. It was her mother's face except for her eyes, which were glowing a bright gold.

"Hello, cub. Are you hungry? I thought you might want something to eat, not that any of this is actually substantial, but it's the thought that counts."

Freya stared at the stranger wearing her mother's face. "Wha…who are you?"

The doppelganger smiled. "I am your mother and yet not. I am the past, present, and future of all that is, was, or ever could be. I'm here because you are in danger, cub, but I believe you already know that. Your mental shields have been virtually eradicated; it is of the utmost importance that you find Time's Champion quickly. He is the only one who can help you."

She didn't know how to react, at all. "Why did you call me 'cub'?" After her first encounter with 'them,' Freya only remembered bits and pieces before her mother whisked them out of there using her own powers.

"I know; that was our doing." Her mother spoke again, this time taking on that warm familiar 'you silly girl' look she always gave Freya as a child. "You were never aware of what we were capable of, your mother and I."

"What?" Freya was completely lost. "Who was what?"

"There are no secrets here, cub. Since your shields were decimated after that first encounter, we have been providing some for you, but it's not enough. They are closing in and you need to be ready. Don't worry too much about your mother, we are always protecting her." Rose's doppelganger, if that's what Freya could call her, set aside whatever she was making and carefully walked up to her, taking her hands. "Freya, you will need to keep your wits. The biggest hurdle you will face may be the Doctor. Our pilot is unusually stubborn sometimes, but so are you. You both need to overcome yourselves if you are ever going to beat 'them.' Do you understand?"

Eyes wide, Freya just gaped like a fish for a few moments. "Not really, no. Who are you and why are you telling me this?"

A frustrated expression covered the doppelganger's face. "I am all that is, was, and ever cou—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got that part, but who are you to me?" Beating around the bush wasn't Freya's style; in fact, she was blunt to a fault. She often got in trouble with her teachers that way.

"In human terms, I am Mother. Yours and yet not. I created myself. In time you will understand, as your mother did. I am here to help, just as my wolf wanted. Understand, cub?" The doppelganger took Freya's face in her hands and looked her right in the eye.

"Y…yeah. I think I kind of get it now. My mother was the 'wolf,' hence why I'm the 'cub'. I'm guessing you are attached to my mum's power in some way, judging by the eyes glowing thingy," Freya gestured, hands flailing a bit, "and the Doctor and I are going to fight like hell. I think I've got it. Although, it still doesn't make sense as to why I'm here and not, well, dead, seeing as my time jumper just sort of crapped out on me. Are you certain I'm not dead? I mean, I could be just lying in ditch somewhere and people will find this random body with all these strange clothes and unusual artifacts—"

"The babbling," Rose's doppelganger interrupted her, a smile crossing her face, "at least you two will have that in common. Now you must go, cub. You have much to do, but do not worry too much. Of course that will be a bit difficult for you because you won't remember this conversation, but still, our wolf is protected and working just as hard as you. Be strong, young one."

"Wait, what do you mean by 'I won't remember this.' Hey, wait, what's going on?! Everything is getting all weird and, and, and…" Everything faded around Freya as she slipped from the dream.

Freya's first feeling was nausea. She felt so sick; it was as if she just spent the entire night gargling down several bottles of Hypervodka. The next thing she felt was the throbbing pain in her head.

Well, on the bright side, she wasn't dead.

The down side was that she felt like she was dying.

As soon as she made a new one, Freya was going to destroy her old time jumper with a hammer. Or a baseball bat. Or both.

A sharp pain alerted her to her left arm, which looked unusually swollen. She was suddenly hit with a wave of vertigo and it only served to make the nausea worse. Hauling herself off what she realized to be a bed of some kind, Freya started dry heaving over the side of it. She hadn't eaten for a while so there wasn't anything coming up except a little stomach acid, but she swallowed to keep it down. Her eyes stung at the vile taste in the back of her throat.

She was in a cell with stone walls on three sides and a clear panel with holes on the fourth side. She guessed that was a plus; at least they didn't want her to suffocate to death.

Not good; she'd been captured. Oh well, not much for it now, she would just have to escape.

Sitting up, Freya leaned against the wall of the cell, letting the stone cool her fevered skin. Her body was still healing from the time jumper's malfunction and, by the feel of it, it probably tore apart a good chunk of her left arm. She noticed that her injury had been expertly bandaged, which she found unusual. Excruciating pain wracked her body whenever she tried to move her damaged arm so she left in lying in her lap to prevent herself from jarring it.

She sat in that cell for who knows how long; well, normally she would if her time sense wasn't obscured by pain and the disorienting effects of her healing process. That was one gift from her biological father that she was genuinely grateful for.

The sound of feet drew her attention to the door at the end of the hallway outside of her cell. Squinting, Freya saw a small, feminine figure walking towards her. The woman stopped just outside her cell and Freya got a good look at her.

She was of average height with dark hair, but Freya was having trouble focusing on much more than that. The woman just stared at her for moment before speaking. "Hello, might I ask who you are?"

Throat dry, Freya spoke at strongly as she could. "A traveler." In situations similar to this she learned that keeping her identity as obscure as possible was usually the best option. If she needed to, she would reveal who she was at a later time.

The woman's body language gave Freya the impression that she was chagrinned about Freya's flippant response.

"You were badly injured when we found you; can you tell me what happened?" Her question was sincere.

Carefully deliberating her next words, Freya opted for a vague explanation of the truth. "My tech malfunctioned; it was only a prototype so it's really a miracle that it lasted as long as it did. I was aiming for Cardiff, but I really have no idea if I made it. Where am I?"

The woman kept her expression neutral. "Cardiff. What is it that you're here for?"

Freya was quiet for several moments. "I'm hoping to find someone. I need his help."

A soft look covered the woman's face as she said, "What's his name? I might be able to contact him."

"I doubt it. He doesn't exactly have a permanent address in the area; he's a traveler like me."

She watched as suspicion crossed the other woman's expression. "What kind of help are you looking for then?"

"You're nosy." Freya was growing agitated by the interrogation. "Asking me all these questions and I don't even know where exactly in Cardiff I am or who you even are. Not only that, but you put me in a holding cell even though I'm injured; talk about rude." She arched an eyebrow at the woman.

Sheepishly, the woman was actually flustered a bit by Freya's response. "Well, you had alien technology on you so we didn't know if you were a threat or not."

Freya huffed a bit. "It's not really alien technology considering that I made it and I'm human." It didn't matter to her where her blood came from, Freya would always identify as human.

"Human? At the rate that your wound was healing, we had no idea what you were."

Freya did not like this woman's tone. "I was raised as one; no amount of alien DNA will change that," she said in a slightly harsh tone.

"Well, that remains to be seen. Until we are certain that you aren't a threat, you will be staying in there. And to answer your earlier questions; my name is Gwen and you're at Torchwood."


	5. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I updated! :D Okay, well here is chapter 4. Freya has a 'talk' with the boss and the Doctor muses over stuff. This story is un-betaed. Any mistakes, please let me know. Feedback is wonderful! Enjoy! =D  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or Torchwood or anything you recognize.

“Torchwood?” Freya was stunned. Had she shown up too early? Had Canary Wharf not happened yet? Shit, this was bad. With her time jumper essentially destroyed with no way to fix it without access to the parts she needed, she was stuck.

“But…how? I thought…but Canary Wharf?”

“Ah, yeah, it’s just Torchwood Three now. It was restarted after the Battle of Canary Wharf.”

Freya was furious. “Who the hell would restart it?! After everything that happened? All the people that were killed?!”

Gwen flinched at her onslaught of questions. “It was restarted because there is still a need for it.”

“Bullshit! This goddamn organization is responsible for almost collapsing the walls between universes and allowed for the invasion of the Cybermen! And it’s because of Torchwood that my mother lost her one chance at happiness!” Freya gasped a little at her slip, angry tears forming in her eyes.

She could remember every instance her mother thought about that day; her eyes would glaze over and a hopeless expression spread across her face. There was always a devastated look in her eye that she tried hard to hide from Freya and it just killed her to see her mother shutter away her pain like that.

It wasn’t fair.

Gwen stared at her, taken aback by her outburst. “Your mother, did she lose someone in the battle?”

Freya was quiet for a long moment. “She lost so much more than that,” she said with a hard edge to her voice. She left it at that.

Gwen wasn’t finished though. “Why is it so important that you be here after Canary Wharf happened? You’re not just a traveler are you, you’re a time traveler.”

“Yes.” A simple, succinct answer.

“And if you came here looking for someone, I’m assuming that he must be a time traveler as well.”

Freya almost ridiculed the woman for stating the obvious but thought better of it. Best not to anger her jailer. “Yes,” she said again.

“Do you know when he’ll show up?”

“No.”

Gwen looked a bit irritated by Freya’s one word answers. Good.

“So if you don’t know where he is or even when he is, are you just going to sit here and wait for him to show then?”

Freya hadn’t really given much thought about that part yet. The problem was that she had no idea when or if the Doctor would show up here in the next day or even decades from now. Her only concern had been getting here after Canary Wharf. Now she was faced with the possibility of a much larger problem; how long would she have to wait and could she really afford to waste that much time?

“I don’t know…” Freya answered honestly, because she truly didn’t.

Gwen gazed at her in sympathy. “What will you do?”

Freya merely shrugged. They were both quiet for a while before Gwen spoke again. “My boss wants to speak with you, but he’s currently out on a call. He has a few questions about your equipment and reasons for being here.”

Freya nodded, not looking at her anymore, knowing that there was no way around it. She only hoped they didn’t pull the whole ‘If it’s alien, it’s ours’ crap on her, but she highly doubted it. All she could do now was wait.

~~~~~~~~~

Donna Noble.

The Doctor was positively giddy. Oh, she was brilliant, she was.

He had just finished showing her to her room before returning to the console room. Brimming with excitement, the Doctor thrust the TARDIS into the Time Vortex and did a little twirl around the console.

If not for the ginger haired woman, the Doctor could not have prevented the deaths of all those people because of the Adipose. Donna had been amazing!

And not only that, she was not at all interested in him physically.

The Doctor still felt incredibly guilty about what happened with Martha. He led her on when he should have been more adamant about drawing the line. He was still in mourning over the loss of…Rose.

It still hurt to think about what he never said to Rose; it probably always would.

His thoughts turned melancholy as he reminisced about his lost pink and yellow girl. Every emotion and memory flooded him in that moment. He remembered the smell of her skin right after a shower, the way the sun caught in her hair making her entire face glow that morning after they made love under the stars on a yet to be discovered beach in the Caribbean, and that time on another beach when she confirmed her feelings for him just before she faded from his life forever.

He never said it back; he had squandered his chance.

The Doctor attempted to shake himself from his depressing thoughts of loss; he had spent enough time dwelling on them in The Year that Never Was. Unfortunately, it didn’t work. The Master had been too busy destroying the world to notice the Doctor’s constant trips down memory lane when he wasn’t trying to maintain his connection with the Archangel Network.

He’d lost companions over the years for one reason or another, many they just couldn’t travel with him anymore because they found something that meant more to them.

Or someone.

And each time he has moved on, never looking back, but that didn’t happen with Rose.

There was always something that brought her to the forefront of his mind. Something to taunt him on his loneliest nights when the bed beside him was cold and lifeless.

Rose wasn’t like the other companions before her. The impact she had on his life was irreplaceable. He had never let any of his previous companions see as deep into his soul as she had, but then again, he had been a very different man before the Time War. Back then he still maintained a level of detachment that kept him from fully allowing someone to completely immerse themselves into his world.

He loved them, though he would not say it. He loved all his companions, but Rose was special. Maybe it was because she was the first companion he had after the Time War or maybe it was just something that was inherently her that drew him in.

The Doctor didn’t believe in soul mates, but if he had Rose would have been his. He searched all his life for her without even realizing it. She was that little bit of spark that made life worth living after the war; she made him want to see the universe anew.

All his companions gave him a new perspective about the universe and Rose added to that list.

And Martha too; what he said was true, Martha Jones was a star. She walked the Earth and saved billions of lives and he would never be able to fully repay her for sticking by his side in his time of need.

But he took advantage of her kindness.

Dragged her all over the place without much care to her personal well-being. He was a prat. Rose would have given him such a slap for treating someone like that. Martha deserved so much more than what he gave her and she made a better life for herself once she’d left him.

He was proud of her.

With a ghost of a smile, the Doctor sent the TARDIS into the Time Vortex and plopped onto the jump seat.

Now, where should he take his newest companion?

He grinned; Rome seemed like an excellent idea.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Gwen left not long after announcing that her boss would be back within the hour to speak with their now conscious prisoner.

Fantastic.

Lying down on the bed, Freya willed her headache to go away so she could speak rationally with the new Torchwood boss. She really hoped it wasn’t the parallel version of Derek Allens, one her mother’s former bosses.

Besides being a sexist arse and basically an all around cad, he had pretty brutal methods of interrogation that eventually got him removed by Pete. He was killed not even a year later when he ran a red light and hit another car head on.

To say the least, not many people went to his funeral.

Letting her eyes drift close, Freya drifted into a semi-unconscious state and focused on the timelines. She could see that something was coming soon, but couldn’t tell what it was exactly.

It wasn’t an ominous sensation, more of an uncomfortable feeling. Kind of like going to the doctor’s office for shots; you knew it was coming but the anxiety just made it worse. Blowing out a breath, she opened her eyes again but found that she was still slightly unfocused from the intense amount of healing she just went through.

At least the nausea was gone for the most part, but she didn’t think she could eat anything for a while.

An unnerving feeling settled in her gut.

Something was coming.

It prickled at her time senses, sharp and immovable.

Freya scrambled off the makeshift bed into the corner of the room, for once in her life terrified of what she felt.

It was wrong, so very wrong.

Closer and closer…

Panic squeezed her lungs; never before had she ever felt something like this.

What was it?

Burying her head between her knees and rocking back and forth, Freya tried to force the agonizing pain away. Her head felt as though it was being compressed by extreme pressure making her ears ring and eyes water.

Distantly a door slammed, but Freya paid it no heed.

She could barely breathe. Tears of fear were making their way down her dirty cheeks.

It was like time was trying to avoid whatever was causing Freya to curl into herself out of fear and distress.

Heavy footsteps came to a stop just outside her cell and the sensation of being ripped in two almost completely overwhelmed Freya.

“Hello there good looking,” an American voice laced with slight humor chimed from a few meters away, “or not. Gwen wasn’t kidding when she said you looked like you’d been through hell.”

Chancing a look up, Freya spotted the speaker and immediately cringed. The timelines shifted around him, trying to escape this strange anomaly in time. He practically glowed with some unknown force that was causing her to press even further into the corner, trying to get away from him.

“Woah there gorgeous, I don’t bite. Well, not unless I have permission.” His smile was supposed to be disarming but it didn’t work; Freya could still feel him there, his presence disrupting the very reality around him.

Freya had no idea what she was dealing with but she had a feeling that he wouldn’t go away unless she spoke with him or at the very least acknowledged his presence.

She turned toward him, fighting down her fight or flight instincts.

“There we go! Hello there, I have a few questions for you.”

Ah, right down to business it seemed. The man began questioning her.

“So tell me; how is that you have a style of Vortex Manipulator that I don’t recognize? How far in the future are you from?” he asked, giving her a few moments to think.

“It’s not a Vortex Manipulator. At least, not one made by the Time Agency.” Thankfully, Freya took the time to learn as much as she could when she first arrived here by hacking into a database. She spent a few days just sifting through as much information she could find.

He didn’t seem to buy her story but let it slide for now. “Okay, but what about when you came from? You aren’t from the 51st century I take it?”

“No,” she croaked. Her throat was parched and she hadn’t had anything to drink for a while but, having been through much worse, she was thankful that they hadn’t decided to kill her outright.

He was getting agitated by her avoidance of telling him what time period she was from. Freya had been interrogated enough to know when to give and when to withhold.

He was going to have to try harder than that.

Surprisingly, Freya discovered that the pain was easing a bit the more time went on. Small comfort when you’re imprisoned by a walking, talking fixed point.

The man sighed and ran a hand through his hair, tugging at the dust covered strands. He must have had an interesting night. “Alright, I can understand that you are not in the best of moods because you’re stuck in here, but that technology you were carrying would be dangerous in the wrong hands. What I want to know is if those hands could be yours?”

His question stretched between them. Freya remained silent for a few moments, deliberating her answer. “It’s broken and I don’t have the parts to fix it; ‘s not like I could leave even if I wanted to. Look, I’m just looking for someone. I won’t cause any trouble while I wait, well, I’ll try not to at least.” She laughed a bit. “Can’t make any promises that I won’t tinker; it’s a nervous habit.”

The man seemed to consider her answer, but Freya could not discern his exact emotions or his thoughts. Mental shields. Oh, he was good.

She began to relax as the sensation of the man’s unsettling presence subsided. Cowering in the corner no longer held its appeal and she stretched out her limbs, which cracked from the strain of holding the position she was previously in, and leaned against the wall.

The man crouched down and looked her in the eyes, “So, you’re stranded here then?”

“Yup, seems so.”

“Well, seems that we’ll be getting to know each other pretty well then. How about starting with your name,” he said, propping an arm on his leg and settling his chin in his hand.

Freya snorted. She wasn’t going anywhere until she was fully healed and the good thing was that he didn’t seem as threatening as she had first believed. Might as well make friends then. “Freya.”

“Freya? Do you have a surname or is that it?”

He would know if she was lying which was rather inconvenient to staying as anonymous as possible.

“Tyler,” she said simply.

He flinched. It was small movement, but there nonetheless.

“What? Something wrong with my name?”

“No, it’s just…” he trailed off, his face going slightly slack. “That name reminds me…”

Now Freya was curious. What did her name mean to him? She’s never met him, unless…

“Have you heard of me before?”

He started when she asked, shaking away the thoughts clouding his mind. “Um, no, I don’t think I have. It’s nothing. Well, hello Freya Tyler, I’m Jack Harkness and you are at Torchwood in Cardiff.”

Her eyes almost popped out of her head at the name. “Jack Harkness?!”

It was impossible.

Completely, unreasonably impossible and yet, maybe it was real. Maybe this was him.

The man quirked a brow and smiled suggestively. “Yes, that is my name and I really do enjoy hearing someone shout it. Although, it’s more often when I’m naked.”

Unbelievable.

Her mother said that he was still rebuilding the Earth in the distant future so it couldn’t be him, could it? Her mind was reeling from the possibilities.

“Who are you? What are you? This is impossible; you cannot exist. How are you able to avoid time like that? This is unreal. I can’t believe that—”

“Woah there. What do you mean ‘what am I?’ Also, what was that about time?” Jack leaned in as close as he could to her cell, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

Shit. She did it again.

“You are not normal,” she said softly. “Time tries to avoid you. You split timelines like a boulder in a river.”

Jack was incredulous at her statements. “Who are you really?” he hissed. His aura changed so quickly that Freya flinched at the flare up of pain. He was projecting his anger and it caused her to recoil physically as well as mentally. The timelines began to shift rapidly around him and Freya felt herself pressing harder against the wall, which he seemed to notice.

“Is that why you are trying to hide from me? You sense that there is something off about me?” he spat. His mood was mercurial as he shifted from one emotion to the next with no warning.

Tucking her legs closer to herself, Freya looked away from Jack as her pounding headache returned full force. She pressed the heels of her hands to her closed eyes, willing away the drowning sensation she was feeling.

Everything just hurt.

She could feel the bowing timelines coalescing into one another, shifting and changing. Different futures were blending together and breaking apart.

She had a decision to make and it needed to be the right one. One wrong choice and she would solidify a timeline that could potentially be catastrophic.

She knew of only one way to be sure that this was the Jack Harkness her mother told her about, but she wasn’t certain of how he would react.

She could only hope this was the right thing to do.

“I know you, or at least, I know of you. She spoke of you often, just like him.”

“Who? Who spoke of me? Who are you?!” Jack pressed closer to her cell and would have towered over Freya if she wasn’t huddling on the other side of the room.

Reaching into the front of her shirt, thankful that they didn’t confiscate her necklace, Freya pulled out a key.

Her mother’s key.

Holding it up in for Jack to see clearly, Freya spoke in the calmest voice she could, “She told me about you. Every story you told her, almost every memory she had. Only one Jack Harkness would recognize what this is and what it means.”

“Where did you get that?”

“It was my mother’s. She gave it to me to help find him. Her name is Rose Tyler. She came from the Powell Estate in London, same as my gran.”

Freya could tell the exact moment Jack figured out whose key she held in her hand. Blood drained from his face as he stared at the worn object.

“No…that’s not possible. She’s gone. She’s lost…that’s just not…” He pressed his palm against the glass, looking at her hand in awe. “How…wait. How do I know you didn’t steal it or find it somewhere? How do I know you didn’t just make a copy?”

“You don’t and the only one who could tell you if it is real is him: the Doctor,” she pleaded. “Please. He would know. I need to find him. I need his help. Please.” Her voice broke on the last word, the frustration and hopelessness after everything that had happened the past few months, no, years catching up with her in that moment.

She didn’t know if it had been the way she begged him or the fact that she really did look a lot like her mother or just the key itself, but whatever it was caused Jack Harkness to look at Freya with eyes that were cautious but believing.

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, you should probably eat something before you keel over. I’ll send Gwen down with some food. Anything else you might need? Painkillers perhaps?”

Shaking her head Freya answered, “No, I’m allergic to anything with aspirin in it and I’m almost fully healed, but I could really go for a cuppa if it’s all the same to you.”

He nodded and, with one last look at the key, swept down the hallway and back upstairs. Freya was thankful that he didn’t comment on her healing, but she had an inkling that he’d already guessed who her father might be. She could sense it in that moment after he saw the key and let down his mental shields.

She just hoped she was right.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! New chapter! Wooo! :D Some exciting things happen in this chapter. This story is un-betaed so if there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to let me know. :) Now onto the chapter. Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters or anything you recognize.

It had been a couple of very exciting adventures with Donna, but this most recent one was troubling him a bit. The Doctor was still trying to make sense of Ood Sigma’s last words to him yesterday.

‘The Wolf sends the Cub, but beware; Shadows follow.’

It was some kind of prophecy, but that can’t be possible. The Ood shouldn’t be able to do that.

Unless there was more to the Ood than he previously thought.

That was rather curious. Shrugging it off as something to look into at a later date, the Doctor puttered around the console room for a while before going to the galley for a cup of tea. The moment he set foot into the room he noticed a head of ginger hair sitting at the table.

“How are you doing?” he asked Donna as he plopped onto the seat across from her.

She shrugged. “It’s just…the human race can be so terrible sometimes. Beyond cruel. And the fact that it doesn’t really change in the future is a bit, I don’t know, unnerving. Disappointing.”

Shifting uncomfortably, he reached over and squeezed her hand comfortingly. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. You’re not human.” She gave him a weak smile that didn’t reach her eyes as she took a sip from her tea.

The Doctor shook his head. “No, I’m not, but my species was, well, just as bad when it came to horrible acts of cruelty. Which was surprising considering their whole ‘don’t get involved with inferior species’ attitude. They mostly did things that benefited them only; emotionally stunted they were. Humans are different; they have no problem with showing their emotions and I think that is definitely a benefit that the Time Lords didn’t have.”

It hurt, but it felt good at the same time. He needed to talk about it and despite their clashing personalities at times, Donna was wonderful at understanding him. Understanding his pain. And it felt good to have someone to talk to again.

He felt a flash of guilt for Martha. If only he had just let her in, well, none for it now. He’s put Martha through enough.

“Yeah, but even then. Humans or Time Lords, it’s just, I don’t know. I just hoped we would have been better. Learned enough from past mistakes, but I guess not.” Donna looked down at her cup, lost in thought.

The Doctor knew that there was a lot that needed to be said but at the same time it could wait until she was feeling better. He spoke reassuringly, “But then there are humans like you, Donna. Humans that go out of their way to save those who need to be saved. You saw the pain they were suffering through and you helped them and that, Donna, is what makes the human race extraordinary. You are brilliant, you are.”

“Oh can it, you prawn,” Donna said with a slight smile.

They laughed for a bit and talked about the different places that the Doctor had listed of where they could go that day.

“You are lying! An entire planet devoted to recreating the Renaissance Era? No, now you are just having me on,” Donna retorted exasperatedly.

The Doctor giggled. “I am not! Although it only lasted a century before people got sick of the hygiene issues; they were authentic to say the least.”

The face he received from his companion made the Doctor laugh even harder. Donna looked a bit green. “Ugh, I guess people like to romanticize the past without really taking into account the problems that existed.”

“Oh yes! There was this once when I was in the medieval period before the plague broke out and there was all this—”

Donna blanched. “No thanks, I’d rather not hear about it. You really know how to gross a woman out.”

Leaning back in his chair, the Doctor just grinned cheekily. “Well, you are fortunate, Donna Noble. Not many people get the privilege of going into space. And traveling through time to boot! Imagine all the places we’ll get to see!”

The smile Donna gave him was genuine and truly happy and the Doctor was glad to see it. He knows deep down that she doesn’t really see how amazing she is and that makes him all the more determined to show her. “You know what? There is something that many people have not gotten the chance to do; what do you say about driving the TARDIS? You know, take a crack at it. Hm?”

Practically knocking her chair over in excitement, Donna exclaimed, “Really?! You better not be pulling my leg, Space Boy, or I’ll have at you.”

The Doctor lifted his hands in appeasement. “Yes, I mean it.”

Donna narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “What’s the catch?”

“What?! There’s no catch! Well, I’ll have to be there with you making sure that you don’t fly us right into a black hole, of course.”

Huffing a laugh, Donna commented, “’Course, I just knew you were going to be a backseat driver, what with you criticizing my driving when I was still wearing my wedding dress with no pockets.”

Her expression shifted and the Doctor knew that she was thinking about her failed wedding and that cad of a fiancé of hers. Well, that wouldn’t do; Donna deserved much better than the treatment that man had given her.

He would show his new friend just what she could do.

“Well then, allonsy!” he shouted as he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the console room.

“Oi! Watch the arm there; I quite like having it still attached to me.” Donna grumbled as she caught up with the giddy Time Lord.

They chatted as they made their way into console room and the Doctor let Donna have a seat as he explained the basics on how to drive a TARDIS. And as usual, he got quite a bit off topic. Donna cut off his rambling before he flew into a tangent about nosy chambermaids in the Klaxlorian palace.

“Well, that’s all nice and well, Doctor, but weren’t you going to teach me how to drive? Don’t you have a manual or something?”

He mumbled something before stating, “Well, yes, I did, but it’s gone now.”

“And what happened to it?”

The Doctor’s face tightened. “I tossed it into a dying sun after…after I burnt it up.”

There was an awkward silence after his last statement. The Doctor swallowed roughly against the emotional avalanche that hit him as he thought about what he did right after he dropped Donna off for the first time. The helplessness still haunted his dreams when he found that there really was no safe way to get Rose back.

He dug his fingers into the console behind him and tried to tamp down on the crushing pain that threatened to swallow him whole.

Donna caught onto where his thoughts had gone and offered him an empathetic smile. Sniffing loudly, the Doctor swallowed again to gather himself together.

“Alright, let me show what you need to do in order to navigate through the Time Vortex.”

Soon they were flying through the vortex, although they almost ran right into the 80s. Really, though, it wasn’t as if they could possibly do more damage to that era.

A phone started ringing.

“Hold on, that’s a phone?” Donna asked incredulously. “You’ve got a mobile?! Since when?”

“It’s not mine.” He gazed at the name on the phone, scarcely believing it. “Hello?”

“Doctor, it’s Martha. And I’m bringing you back to Earth.”

“Really? What for?”

“Well, I’ll need you to stop by, but actually Jack asked me to contact you about something important. Really important by the sound of it.”

“Ah. Right.”

“He said to just show up inside of Torchwood. He’s already warned his team about your parking skills.”

“Oi! They’re not that bad,” he grumbled.

She laughed. “After that, I am going to need your help with something.”

“Sure. I’ll be right there as soon as I’m done with Jack.”

“Well, he might not be very impressed if you finish with him too quickly.”

He mock gasped. “Martha Jones! For shame. I think Jack’s been rubbing off on you.”

“That’s not the only thing he’s been rub—” He cut her off before she finished that train of thought.

“Alright, alright, I get it. Well, there’s a mental image I didn’t need at the moment. I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“Yep! And thanks Doctor.”

He shot Donna a look that stated that they needed to talk about some things after he’s finished. “Anything for you, Martha Jones.”

He hung up and gave Donna a sour look. “We’re going to Cardiff and there is something you should know first. When we meet Jack, just don’t, don’t.” He all but waggled his finger at her.

“Don’t what? You’re not telling me what to do, Space Man!” her indignant reproach made the Doctor flinch a bit. Okay, best not to order Donna around. Got it.

“Alright then, lesson over for today. We’ve got work to do!” he exclaimed with a manic grin. “Allonsy!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Freya was dozing in her cell when she felt the uncomfortable presence of the captain again. She steeled her nerves against the onslaught of pain and was thankful that it wasn’t as bad as the last time. Ah, she must be getting used to him. That was good.

The tray on the floor still had most of its food only because she was still having trouble keeping anything down. She was eating bits and pieces every once in a while to help speed up her healing. She needed the nutrients.

Walking into view, Jack had in his hands her bag. Ah. She was wondering when they would figure it out. Smirking, Freya waited for him to speak first.

“I’ve contacted a friend of mine who used to be a companion of the Doctor and she still has his number. She needs his help for something else and was about to call him anyway. She’ll ask him to show up in a couple of hours.” Freya nodded with a small smile and let him continue. “Sooo, while we wait, I’ve got something here that you might recognize and I guess you already know that we can’t get it open. What type of fabric is it made of?”

“Colian. Strong as titanium, but malleable and the lock is one of a kind.”

Jack sat on the floor outside the cell and made himself comfortable. “I noticed. My team can’t seem to get it unlocked. Clever, very clever. What’s the password for it?”

“There isn’t one. Like I said, it’s one of a kind. It’s actually a puzzle.” Freya almost laughed when Jack pouted about not being able to open her bag.

“Really? What type?” he asked genuinely interested.

She hesitated, but knew that she was one of the only individuals who could open it quickly. It would take his team months, possibly years to find the right combination and that’s only if they’d finished this type of puzzle once before. “Alkileen.”

Jack whistled. “Damn, no wonder. So I’m guessing you know how to get it open.”

“Yes, but I can’t do it from in here.”

“Sure you can.”

Freya raised an eyebrow at him. “So, what? You’re just going to hand it to me? Aren’t you afraid that I wouldn’t have some back up equipment in there that I could use to escape?”

He laughed heartily at her assumption. “Oh, I’m pretty sure that if you really wanted out you would have escaped almost as soon as you woke up. No, I think all you have in here is just personal stuff and maybe a trinket or two. It’s pretty heavy.”

Freya snorted, but smiled good naturedly at him. “Okay, toss it here.”

Instead of just tossing it to her from the doorway, he unlocked the cell door and walked in until he was about a meter away from her. She winced, but found that it didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would. Jack set the bag on the other side of the bed and walked over to sit by the wall.

Freya flew through the puzzle quickly, noting how Jack’s eyes lit up in amazement at her talent with it. She opened the bag and gazed at the familiar objects that were the last remaining pieces of her life in her other dimension. She reached in and pulled out what could easily have passed for a small laptop but was actually a three dimensional photo and video album.

Freya had modified a few of the features so that it would project a larger screen than it was originally designed to. Adjusting the settings so that Jack could easily see the pictures from where he sat, Freya turned on the random setting and lay back against the wall as it played.

She explained that the first picture was of the time that she and Mickey had decided to paint the fence white and of course things went a little awry. Both of them were covered in white paint stains, but wearing the biggest grins on their faces. Her mum thought it so hilarious that she couldn’t even be mad at them.

The next image was actually a video of when she was just learning to crawl and she had accidentally wedged herself between the desk and the wall, but was too busy being amused by the toy she found back there to notice. Her mum could be heard giggling from behind the camera. A wistful look came over Jack’s face when he heard it.

Another picture followed and it was from her seventh birthday. Pete had built her a little motor car that she could drive around the back yard whenever she visited her grandparent’s home. Tony had a matching one.

They watched several pictures and videos and Freya explained each one just as she remembered them. And then the one video that she had been dreading came up; it was from the day she was born.

Feeling uncomfortable, Freya explained to Jack exactly why Jackie was sobbing incoherently and why Mickey, who had been cradling her at the time, looked as though he had just lost everything.

And he had.

It was the day her mother died.

The pregnancy had been hard to begin with as it lasted a solid fourteen months. For a while they truly believed that Rose would never give birth, but then she went into labor. At the supermarket no less. Her mother always teased her about almost becoming ‘the Aisle 3 baby.’

“But you said she raised you. How could she have died?”

“The pregnancy had been rough and the delivery even worse. She lost so much blood and they had to perform an emergency operation. Her heart gave out within minutes of the first incision.” Freya closed her eyes and blocked out the image of her gran crying hysterically after the surgeon walked into the room to tell the family the news.

Pete had recorded the entire thing without realizing it.

“They let the family and Micks in to see her before eventually moving the body to the morgue.” Freya spoke in a clinical tone, as though she were not talking about her mother at all.

Jack looked sick. “I…I don’t get it. How?”

“That’s what the morgue director thought too, especially after she popped up off the table asking for her baby.” Freya guffawed at the look on Jack’s face, but then his expression darkened considerably.

“So, it happened to her, too,” he whispered so quietly that she wasn’t sure she heard him.

Confused, Freya was about to ask him what he meant when they were interrupted by Gwen, who they hadn’t noticed entering the cell block.

“Jack, he’s here.”

“Alright, thanks.” Jack turned his attention towards Freya and asked, “Ready?”

Well, it was now or never. “I guess,” she breathed out softly.

Jack nodded and gave one last look at the flow of pictures and videos before following Gwen back to the main floor.

Freya was alone with just her thoughts, which buzzed about nervously in her head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Doctor parked the TARDIS inside Torchwood Three just like he’d been asked and he did it perfectly, thank you very much. Strolling out the doors, his jacket swishing behind him, the Doctor took in the large facility that Jack worked in.

Not bad. Some interesting stuff he’s got here.

A short man with a rather unpleasant look about him just shrugged and went back to his work as though he didn’t even care that someone just parked their spaceship in his workplace. The Doctor frowned a bit but ignored it. A small framed woman with shorter black hair was staring at him with no small amount of shock.

The Doctor always felt a bit chuffed when that happened.

“Oh, quit your preening. We’re here to see this ‘Jack’ fellow and then go help Martha.” Donna followed him out and stood next to him, waiting for Jack to show.

He felt him before he saw him; that familiar prickling sensation made the Doctor shift about uncomfortably.

“Thanks for coming, Doc.” The American accent drifted from behind them.

The Doctor and Donna turned to face the head of Torchwood. “Really, Jack? You know how much I hate it when you call me that.”

Jack just laughed and hoisted the Doctor up into a bear hug, swinging him about.

Almost choking for air, the Doctor grunted, “Easy there. I may a respiratory bypass system but I would much prefer my lungs didn’t collapse first. So what is it that you need?”

Jack set the squirming man back on his feet, but not before ‘accidently’ getting a handful of the Time Lord’s bum. “I need your help, or more correctly, there is someone here that needs your help.”

The Doctor looked at Jack quizzically. “Really, who?”

“It’s best if you come down and meet them. They’ve recently suffered a pretty nasty injury and is almost healed, but still recovering from it.”

The Doctor just looked at Donna and shrugged. Jack followed his gaze toward her. “Well, hello there. Captain Jack Harkness and who are you?”

She flushed a brilliant red. “Donna. Donna Noble.”

Jack picked up her hand and gave it a small kiss, not once taking his eyes off her. Donna looked as though she were about to float towards the ceiling at any moment. The Doctor just rolled his eyes. “Come on, Jack.”

“Sorry, Doctor, you know I could never resist such a beautiful creature as your Donna Noble here.”

“Oh, I’m not his. Never ever. Totally single.” She was as giddy as a school girl with a crush.

“Annnyway,” the Doctor interrupted, “why don’t we meet this person who needs my help?”

Jack turned his attention back to the Doctor and nodded. “Follow me. Although, it might be best that your radiant friend here stays with my team. The person you’re here to see might not want an audience.”

The Doctor frowned, but thought it best that he see whoever it was first before letting Donna take a peak. “Donna, would you mind staying up here for just a little while. There are some really important matters that I need to take care of. Please?”

Donna looked a bit put out and he could tell that it was a struggle for her not to argue with him, but his ‘please’ caught her off guard and she agreed. “But don’t keep me in the dark.”

“I won’t. We just don’t want to overwhelm them is all. See you in a bit.”

With that, Jack guided the Doctor down to a holding area with several cells in it. He was puzzled by this. “I thought you said they were injured. Why would they be in a prison cell?”

“Was injured. Pretty much healed now. We weren’t certain if they were a threat or not so we had to be cautious.”

Jack stopped in front of the last cell on the right and the Doctor almost ran right into him. He heard a small gasp from inside. Turning, his gaze fell upon a small haggard figure sitting on the cot inside the cell. “Oh, hello there.”

The woman just stared at him in disbelief. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.

The Doctor was slightly confused and shot Jack a look before returning his attention to the woman. “I’m the Doctor. Jack said that you needed my help, correct?”

That seemed to snap the woman out of her shock induced stupor as she stated rather hoarsely, “Yeah, I do.”

“Okay, well, what do you need my help for?”

She hesitated before answering him, “I need to save my mother.”

Oh, well, that was interesting. “Your mother? What kind of danger is she in?”

A cold expression appeared on her face. “We’re being hunted.”

“Hunted? By who?”

“By what. We don’t know. Mum said that she had never encountered them before. They took an interest in us anyway.”

That was strange indeed. “But if she had never met them before, why would they go after her?”

“I honestly don’t know or care. I just want them to stop. I need to save my mother before they get to her, or else…” she trailed off with a choked cry. “She’s all I have left. I can’t lose her too.”

The Doctor knew that look. It was very similar to the one he saw in the mirror after a nightmare; the one that spoke of untold loss. His heart went out to the poor woman. “Did your mother know me and that’s why you came to find me?”

“Yes. She said that the Doctor was the only one who could possibly stop these creatures.”

He mused over this. “Ah, and so she sent you to find me. How long did it take you?”

The woman sagged a bit in exhaustion; she must have been still recovering from her injuries. “Months,” she whispered tiredly.

“Wow. That was really quick. For most people it takes years, even decades, to find me.”

The woman laughed weakly. “Yeah, well, I’m really good at finding things I guess. Plus, my mother gave me a few hints before I left. She told me to start in Cardiff because you often frequented the area.”

“Weellll, it’s not so bad. Plus, I use the rift here to fuel my ship.”

She smiled.

“What’s your name?” he prodded gently.

She lifted her face a bit and he got a better look at her. Why did she seem so familiar? She must really resemble the companion he once traveled with.

Nervously twisting her hands in her lap, she licked her lips before giving him a determined look. She then proceeded to reach inside of her shirt and pulled out a necklace with a key on it, holding it up for him to see.

“My name is Freya Tyler. My gran’s name is Jackie Tyler and I am Rose Tyler’s daughter.”


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello! Well, I haven't posted in a while, have I? I apologize about that. Life's been really hectic for me lately so I've fallen behind quite a bit. My apologies. However, I will be updating a bit more from now on. :) This story is un-betaed so all mistakes are my own.  
> Enjoy! :D  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything you recognize.

He wasn’t what she expected him to be. Tall and thin, with hair that stuck up all over the place giving him the appearance of a startled rooster. He was sort of brown with an excitable air about him; not nearly as imposing as she thought he’d be.

Really, though, her mother’s description of him always sounded so grand and magnificent, but looking at him now made Freya wonder if he was actually just a time traveling physics professor.

After dropping her little bombshell, Freya waited for the fallout.

Time ticked by slowly and yet the Doctor didn’t say anything. Not a word. Just complete silence, as though every neural pathway in his brain had shut down. She was expecting denial or even anger at her words, but not this. This was surprising.

She turned her focus away from the frozen man to Jack, who seemed just as surprised by the Doctor’s lack of reaction. “Is he okay?” she questioned gingerly.

Jack merely shrugged and carefully shook the man’s shoulder. “Doc? Doc, didn’t you hear her? She’s Rosie’s.”

The Doctor still didn’t come back to himself, but did shift his gaze away from her face to the key in her hand. For a few long seconds Freya was certain that he was going to say something.

And then he just walked away.

That…was not what she was expecting.

“Freya, just…let me talk to him. I’ll sort this.” With that, Jack stormed after the man, leaving Freya alone in her cell again.

All she could do now was wait.

Fantastic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donna Noble had not expected to see the Doctor again after her first adventure, if you could call it that, with the Racnoss. She tried to live her life to the fullest but it just didn’t click the way she wanted it to and then she was right back to temping just as she had been before.

Then she investigated the Adipose Company and ran headlong into the Doctor, never looking back. It had been a whirlwind of adventures after that. Pompeii and the Ood Sphere. And each one left her a bit shaken but still more than willing to see what else was out there.

She had seen many shocking things by now, but nothing could compare to the look on the Doctor’s face as he came back to the main floor of Torchwood. His eyes were stricken and the way he carried himself made it seem as though he would be sick at any moment. He looked so lost and confused.

Jack came barreling after him with an agitated expression on his face. “Oi! Doc! You can’t just walk out of there without listening to what she had to say! You have no idea what that girl’s gone through to find you.”

The Doctor whirled around to face Jack, rage practically spewing from of his eyes. “What she’s gone through?! How do you she’s not lying?! How do you know that she didn’t just steal her key, pretending to be someone who cannot possibly exist?! Jack, the walls are sealed. There is no possible way that she could be hers! We’re done here.”

Jack was furious. “To the hell we are! She has pictures, Doc, and videos. She has proof. And she has her key. I’ve seen it, Doctor. It’s hers, it really is.”

Emotions warred on the Doctor’s face; he didn’t know what to do anymore. “Jack, it’s just not possible…” he trailed off, sounding more uncertain than Donna had ever heard him.

“Doctor, just talk to her.”

“I can’t! I just…I just can’t.”

Jack pulled the Doctor into a hug, despite the Time Lord’s stiff attitude towards him. “Here, why don’t we go get something to drink like tea or whatever you want and just talk about this? You can’t ignore her, Doc, and there are some things that you need to know before we go back in there. Come on.”

Without waiting for a reply, Jack led the Doctor out of the room.

Donna just stood there, completely confused by what just occurred. She wandered over to the taller, brown haired woman that came up with Jack earlier. “Um, excuse me? Who was it that they were talking about?”

The woman turned towards her and seemed conflicted about what to say. “Ah, well, I don’t know if I should–”

“Oh, come off it! The Doctor said that I could take a look after he finished and it sure seems like he is going to be done for a while. Plus, he’s my friend and someone’s upset him; I want to see who it is.”

Still the woman hesitated and Donna was getting frustrated enough to just storm down to the room they had just exited. Finally, the woman yielded and offered to show her.

“She’s not a threat and is probably more exhausted than anything else. She was hurt pretty badly when we found her, but she’s mostly healed now. Jack was going to move her upstairs to rest in his office if the Doctor didn’t show up soon. Oh, and I’m Gwen by the way.” She stuck her hand out to Donna, who greeted her right back.

As they descended the stairs into a cell block, Donna realized that she hadn’t considered that there might be other criminals down there. However, she quickly learned that there wasn’t a soul down there except the woman napping on the cot in the last cell.

Gwen cleared her throat, attempting to gain the woman’s attention. She didn’t budge. Gwen did this a few more times before Donna got fed up with the woman ignoring them.

“Oi! We need to talk to you.” Donna demanded and she watched the woman almost startle right off the bed. She scrambled up to look at her and both women gasped and exclaimed at the same time.

“Donna?!”

“Freya?!”

“What?” Gwen chimed in. “Wait, you two know each other?”

Donna was gobsmacked. This was impossible! “Wait, what are you doing here?!”

Freya looked just as stunned. “I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing at Torchwood?”

“I’m with the Doctor. Remember that man I told you about; the one that I thought kidnapped me?”

Freya’s eyes widened even more. “You were talking about the Doctor? Wait, how did you two meet?”

“At my wedding,” Donna spat with no small amount of spite, “well, actually in the TARDIS, but what happened was my prat of a fiancé wanted to feed me to these giant baby spiders living in the middle of the Earth. Meanwhile, said fiancé was shacking up with their mother, the Empress or whatever. Still grosses me out.”

Donna shuddered as she recalled that horrible experience with her ex-fiancé Lance.

“Wait, giant baby spiders?” Gwen asked her. “You were almost eaten by giant baby spiders?”

“Yeah, because their mother wanted to take over the world or eat it or something. Ugh. Well, anyway, that’s not why we’re down here, is it? Freya, what’s your connection to the Doctor?”

The younger woman sighed and stood up on slightly shaky legs, stretching her arms a bit. “Well, I told you about the guy I was looking for. The one my mother knew. Well, she used to be a companion of the Doctor’s and right now she and I really need his help.”

Donna was puzzled. If Freya was only asking the Doctor to help one of his former companions and her daughter, then why would he react the way he did? “Freya, what’s the real reason that he freaked out like that? What are you not telling us?”

A pained expression came over Freya’s face. “Ah, well, she wasn’t just any companion to him. At least that’s what I got from her explanation and his reaction earlier. The thing is, he and mother were pretty close.”

“Freya,” Donna growled, getting irritated with her obvious avoidance of the topic, “out with it.”

Scratching the back of her neck, Freya looked back and forth between Gwen and Donna. “Ah, well, you see, my mum’s name is Rose, Rose Tyler, and–”

“Oh. My. God! No way! You have got to be kidding me! Rose. His Rose! Your Rose’s daughter!” Donna exclaimed.

She could now understand the Doctor’s reaction. Suddenly finding out that the love of his life had a child, a grown child at that, without him probably hurt pretty badly. However, something didn’t add up. “Freya, if Rose is your mother, then who is your father?”

Freya looked ready to run. There was something that she wasn’t telling them; something very important. “Freya, who is your father?”

“Is it important?” she asked nervously.

Donna bristled. “Important? Important?! That man just ran out of here completely shell-shocked and you’re asking me if it’s important! You bet your bum it’s important! Let me guess, you haven’t told him ‘exactly’ who you are, have you? He deserves to know, Freya. You can’t hide this forever.”

“Don’t you think I know that?! But here’s the thing, Donna, he’s a stranger to me. I don’t know him. I’ve only heard about him from the stories my family told me. That’s it. Finding out that you’re blood related hardly makes you family!” Freya barked.

Neither Gwen nor Donna knew what to say. What could they? She was right. Freya had grown up without a father, only her mother and a handful of others that helped to raise her. Donna remembered her story about her mother’s friend Mickey and his loss when she was only a child. He had been the closest thing to a father that Freya ever had and now she was faced with her biological father who she had never before that day.

“Honestly, I’ve never even seen him before. Mum made him sound larger than life so I really wasn’t expecting a beanpole with crazy hair.” Freya snorted as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “That was a surprise.”

Donna started to laugh. “Out of everything you focus on, that’s what struck you the most about him?”

“Weelll, mum said that he talked a lot but he didn’t say a word after I told him who I was. He just walked out! I was expecting him to deny it or get angry or something other than just walking away. I need his help, my mother needs his help, but what can I do if he won’t listen?” She posed this question directly to Donna, who knew that there would be much to do if they were to ever convince the Doctor that Freya spoke the truth.

Even if what Freya said wasn’t actually real, she believed it was. In Freya’s mind this is what she knew as truth and Donna would try to help her convince the Doctor, or at least get him to check into it. There was much that needed to be explained, such as where Rose had last been when Freya lost contact with her and what exactly caused her to come find the Doctor. There was just so much that everyone needed to know.

“Alright, well let’s get you out of this depressing cell and maybe let you have a shower or two because frankly dear, you look like a mess and I’ve no doubt that you probably want one anyway.” Donna voiced as she gestured for Gwen to open the cell. “Oi, don’t just stand there. You said your boss was going to move her upstairs anyway. Come on then! She’s been through enough already.”

Put out a bit by Donna’s gruffness, Gwen went back up the steps to get the keys. Turning towards the brunette still locked in the cell, who was now rummaging through a bag on the cot, Donna had something she wanted to ask her. “Freya, why are you here anyway? What really happened?”

Not even looking at her, Freya tugged the bag over her shoulder and shrugged. “Something wants to use us. I don’t know exactly what for, but it’s dangerous and volatile.” Freya commented blandly. “And it might have something to do with what was causing tears to form between this universe and the one I was raised in; tears that allowed for me to slip through to this universe.”

“Isn’t that good though? We can get your mother back then.”

“No, it’s not Donna. It’s catastrophic. If those tears become any more frequent or start growing size not only will this universe and the one next to it be in danger, but every surrounding reality is threatened and in danger of collapsing. I want my mother back more than anything, but this isn’t just about what I want. I need someone who can either help my mother through the Void safely and find a way to stop the tears from occurring, but if only one of those is possible then I…” she stopped and looked at Donna with tortured eyes, “I have to put my own feelings aside. I have to stop them, Donna, I have to stop them.” she said pleadingly; begging for Donna to understand the decision she had to make. A decision that would destroy everything she loved.

Donna didn’t know what to say. “Oh, Freya…”

“Jack and the Doctor are back in the main room and want to speak with her.” Gwen came jogging into the room, keys in hand. “Ianto made some tea if you want some.”

Freya had turned away the moment she heard Gwen’s voice, not wanting the other woman to see her so emotionally distraught. “Sure, yeah, I’d love some.” After giving the Welsh woman a tight smile, she walked out of the cell as soon as it was opened.

“In a rush?” Gwen asked.

“I’ve been in there for over a day and frankly, it smells. And, believe me, that’s saying something coming from someone who hasn’t bathed in a while. A good wash of these cells wouldn’t hurt.” Freya muttered as she strode ahead of Gwen, desperate to leave the dingy room.

She slowed her accent up the steps as the weariness caused by her injury still sapped a bit of her energy. Eventually Donna had to help her up the stairs so that she didn’t pass out and fall down; Gwen stayed close by just in case.

Freya hated feeling so weak, but it had not been a good past few days and she was just tired and, if she was honest with herself, she was also dreading her talk with the Doctor.

As they cleared the steps, something big and blue caught Freya’s eye.

There it was.

The TARDIS.

A big blue box with the words ‘Police Public Call Box’ in bright white letters near the top.

She halted, almost causing Donna and Gwen to trip. It was unbelievable. Even after all the stories she had heard she never expected to ever really see it, but there it was, conspicuously sitting in the middle of the room. Freya was so entranced by the ship that she didn’t even notice Jack come up beside her and take her arm, tugging her towards his office. She let herself be led away from the other two women, who both looked a bit concerned for her.

Well, this was going to be fun.

Jack let her have a seat by his desk and walked out of the room again as another man in a sharp suit walked in to offer her some tea, which she took gratefully.

When Jack strode back in Freya refused to look up, suddenly feeling incredibly crowded and nervous. She also felt a bit of that nausea return from earlier, albeit for an entirely different reason.

She knew the instant the Doctor stepped into the room as a sharp pressure probed at the back of her mind. It was curious and cautious all at the same time, not certain how to approach her. She had to refrain from pushing back, lest he notice her own strong telepathic abilities. Low profile, she told herself. He needn’t know about her true parentage just yet.

“So,” Jack spoke warily, nervous about breaking the heavy tension in the room, “there are some things that need to be discussed.”

Freya hummed her confirmation, but didn’t hear anything from the other man in the room. Nope, that’s not slightly unnerving at all.

“Oookay,” Jack stressed slowly, “why don’t we start with how exactly you got here in the first place?”

Taking one last sip from her tea, Freya cleared her throat and shifted to a more comfortable position on her chair. “Well, first off, I’d appreciate it if you would stop staring daggers into my back.”

Jack raised his eyebrows before realizing that she had not been addressing him but, instead, the Doctor. A rustle of clothing and the squeak of trainers told her that he understood her intent. He was trying to intimidate her and that really did not sit well with Freya. She didn’t care if this man believed that he was better than others or not, at least that’s what she gathered from her mother’s many stories, Freya was not a pushover.

If he wanted to act like a pompous prat towards her then he had another thing coming.

The Doctor made a wide arch around her to come stand close to Jack, his face hard and emotionless. He lifted an eyebrow in challenge.

Oh, she just wanted to hit him.

No wonder he always got in so much trouble wherever he went; arrogant arse.

Gritting her teeth, Freya ignored him and unlocked her bag, noting the Doctor leaning towards her a bit to get a better look at the puzzle lock. She reached into the satchel and pulled out a circular device, which she held up for the two men to see. She noticed the Doctor’s odd expression towards the device. “Well, this device was a part of the first dimension hoppers, or jumpers, from when Torchwood first came across the Void following the Cybermen. This one is modified to certain specifications that I really don’t want to go into detail about at the moment, but it was designed to hone onto a tear close by and shoot the wearer across the Void to safe area. It took years but,” she paused for a second, “they were able to fix the problems with the original incarnations.”

Jack was definitely interested in the little object and she passed it to him first. He gazed at it for only a moment before the Doctor snatched it out of his hands and pulled out a little cylindrical device that Freya could only assume was his sonic screwdriver. She heard a little whirring noise and the tip lit up a brilliant blue.

The Doctor finally showed some emotion as he examined the dimension jumper, flipping it over and over and his expression shifted from curiosity to some other emotion that she couldn’t recognize. After a few minutes he eventually spoke, “This is the work of a genius. Someone with remarkable skill modified this and, wow, that is brilliant! I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Who did the modifications?”

Freya froze; she wanted to keep that particular part about her a secret for a little while longer but she knew that he would probably figure out that she was lying.

“I did,” she said simply.

He stared at her for a moment before asking, “What? I’m sorry; did you just say that you made it?”

His condescending tone grated on her nerves and, truthfully, she was sick of his attitude. “Yeah. I did,” she snapped.

“Ah, no offense, but only someone with an incredible intelligence would be able to create something like this.”

That was it. She stood up quickly and almost fell back down because of a rush of vertigo. “You know what, I am really beginning to regret meeting you. My mum said you might be difficult, but this is ridiculous. I don’t care if you are the last of the Time Lords or not, I will not be treated like I’m an inferior creature to you. You might think that you are the smartest individual in the room and maybe you are, but I will not just stand by and let you look down your nose at me. Do you understand me, Time Lord?” she snarled at the Doctor.

For a long moment no one in the room moved a muscle, but then the Doctor shuddered and his cold visage cracked.

“You really are hers, aren’t you?” he whispered. His expression said it all; he was a tired and broken man and he looked at her as though she were his only salvation. “You are, you are hers.”

In that moment, Freya understood something; something very important.

The man in front of her was not the man from her mother’s stories. No, this man had changed and become cold and weary, much more so than she had heard about in her mother’s tales, and the way he whispered those last few words to her told her all she needed to know.

He loved her mother very much and Freya knew that even if he was an arrogant twat of a Time Lord, he was still the Doctor. Even if he had changed over the years since the loss of her mother Freya knew that that man was still there, only buried beneath years of pain and sorrow.

“Please,” she begged softly, coming closer and looking him the eyes, “please, she needs your help. I need your help. Please.”

She thought that he might walk away again, but he stayed right where he was and simply nodded. “Yes, I will help.”


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm on a roll today so more chapters coming your way! (That rhymed and I hadn't meant it too. Oh well.) This story is un-betaed so all mistakes are my own. I love feedback so feel free to leave a comment. :D  
> Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything you recognize.

There was an uncomfortable silence that followed the Doctor’s words; none of the parties involved were willing to break the tension. Luckily, a voice from the other side of the door called out for the Doctor.

“Oi, Spaceman! Martha called again asking you to hurry up! She needs to see us soon!” Donna cried out.

Everyone in the room jumped at her sudden interruption, but surprisingly it caused a bit of laughter to erupt from all three of them. Leave it to Donna to break the stalemate. Freya sat down as Jack offered her some biscuits to nibble on and the Doctor swiped one before perching on the edge of Jack’s desk.

Freya cleared her throat and spoke firmly, “She told me to come to Cardiff. Said that it was somewhere that you frequented.”

The Doctor nodded in agreement. “I come here to refuel sometimes. So, what…what else has she told you?”

He was nervous; very much so. Right in front of him was living proof that the walls between the universes were not as solid as he previously believed and the question was how much damage had been done to the fabric of reality? There was no point telling Freya just how dangerous travel between dimensions was because he had a feeling she was already well aware of that. Whatever was after her and…and Rose must be incredibly dangerous and volatile.

“Yes, she mentioned that,” Freya commented with a bit of humor. “I really don’t know where to start and, judging by what Donna said, I should make this quick.”

“Time machine,” the Doctor quipped.

“Still, I guess I should begin with why we are seeking your help in the first place,” Freya started, glancing around the room for a moment before giving the Doctor her full attention.

The Doctor smiled disarmingly, hoping to ease her anxiety. “That sounds good.”

Swallowing around the lump in her throat, Freya began her version of the events that lead up to and following her separation with her mother. “We had stayed on Earth for a while; mum and I both worked for Torchwood for a long time, but eventually we left for various reasons.”

“What kinds of reasons?” the Doctor interrupted, earning him an elbow in the side from Jack.

Her expression turned a bit grim. “Some things happened at Torchwood and, well, we couldn’t stay any longer.”

“What about Jackie and the rest of them?”

“Um, that’s something that’s still hard for me to talk about. I don’t mean to shut you out about that, it’s just, it’s still difficult to discuss. Just really personal.” Freya remarked, flinching at how botched it sounded.

The Doctor wasn’t convinced, “What happened? Are they okay?”

“They’re fine; they’re happy. It’s just that some things happened because of Torchwood.” She wasn’t completely lying, they had been very happy and it wasn’t until after Tony passed away that things changed. Although Freya couldn’t tell him that they were already long dead, she could try and pacify him with a semi-truth; they all lived good lives. It’s just that Freya and her mother outlived them.

“I thought Pete ran Torchwood?”

“He did,” Freya stressed somewhat irritably, “but, as I’ve said, things happened and that’s not really important at the moment. Please, let me tell you some other time when I’m ready to talk about it. I need to explain what’s happening right now.”

Reluctantly, the Doctor agreed and Freya continued. “Mum had some contacts that were able to get us off world without Torchwood finding out and we were able to find some colonies willing to take us for a while. After some time we found a planet where we were able to get some steady work and a decent apartment. For a while we were doing well, but then one night everything went to hell.”

The Doctor sucked in his breath and murmured, “They found you.” It wasn’t a question.

She nodded slowly and the Doctor noticed her wince of fear; these creatures terrified her. What kind of creature could be so awful that Rose would risk losing her child to the Void? He shuddered at the thought.

“Yeah. I got off early that night, was working at a mechanic shop at the port where mum worked, and I was on my way home when…when I felt something.” She shivered at the vague memory of the encounter.

“Felt what?”

“I don’t know, it was like a pressure at the back of my mind. Like something trying to enter it. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the couch in our apartment and mum was grabbing everything she could pack. She contacted some friends who offered us a lift and we left for another planet in a different solar system.” Freya couldn’t remember what happened between her encounter with the creatures and waking up at home and her mother refused to talk about it. For a long time it angered Freya that her mother refused to discuss the event, but eventually she got the message; she was better off not knowing.

“We settled into a new place with what little money we had and mum was really skittish for the longest time. We thought we had lost them, but we were wrong. They found us again and we had to leave once more. It went on like this for a while before mum finally figured that the only way to stop them was to find the only person who could. You.”

The Doctor beamed at Rose’s faith in him. The fact that she entrusted him with her daughter made his heart swell. There were several lingering questions, many of which pertaining to the advanced technology that Freya had, but he figured that he could ask her about that later. “What about these tears?”

Fidgeting, Freya rubbed the back of her neck as another one of her headaches started building up again. “Ah, well, those have been around since I was young. It’s actually how we lost Mickey.”

“What?!” the Doctor bellowed. “What happened to Mickey?!”

Flinching at his loud tone, she looked away from him, trying to control her own emotions. “He was one of the first to attempt going through the Void after Canary Wharf. The tears were really small and far between at first, so they didn’t notice them until I was about six. After that they started monitoring their appearances and eventually decided that they needed someone’s help. Your help. They didn’t know what was happening and they were incredibly worried about something cataclysmic occurring. Mickey was one of the leaders of the project.”

The Doctor processed her words; something just didn’t add up. The timeline, for one, but also the tears and the creatures. Had the creatures come through one of the tears or had they created them? And from where had the creatures come from? By her description he discerned that they were possibly strong telepaths and very good at tracking.

Freya leaned back against her seat and stretched out her legs, wincing at the stiffness. “One day they were doing routine checks of the tears and one appeared close to Torchwood. I don’t know if it was simply a coincidence or what, but Mickey took off with part of his team to find it. They had barely made it into the warehouse where the tear was when Mickey activated the cannon. It closed right after he passed through it.”

A few tears gathered in her eyes and she blinked them away just as she always did. “He never came home.”

Jack handed her a tissue and waited for her breathing to calm. Freya’s shoulders shook from the effort to keep from crying, her voice breaking as she spoke. “Mum was devastated, but she carried on. We all did. It’s been so long.” Sniffing, she changed topics. “We had been on the run for a while when mum made the choice to send me through the Void. She said she found the ‘right tear.’ I don’t know what she meant by that, but she’s never wrong when it comes to that stuff and I have no idea why. I had just finished modifying the dimension jumper when they found us again and honestly, my mum was much better at getting away when I wasn’t there for her to worry about. It’s a good thing I left when I did.”

Unfortunately it was true; her mother’s abilities worked much better when she only had to worry about herself. With the added strain of Freya, her mum had to exert twice as much energy just to get them away from the creatures. Without her dragging her mother down, Freya could only hope that Rose was able to get away from the creatures in time.

“I’m sure she didn’t want you to leave.” Jack chimed in.

Freya smirked weakly. “Yeah, didn’t matter though. Had to leave before they found us. Knowing her, she probably escaped before they even saw her. She’s good at that.”

Warmth spread through the Doctor’s chest at her words as memories of Rose giggling behind him as they ran from pursuing aliens hordes passed through his mind. Oh yes, she was very good at escaping; he made sure of that. It still hurt to think about her, but the feeling dulled a bit in the presence of her child. He didn’t know why, but there was just something about her that made some of the pain fade away.

“Yeah, she was,” the Doctor murmured.

“Right before she activated the dimension jumper she told me that finding you was imperative. The first place I landed in was the 51st century, and don’t even get me started on some of the things I saw there, where I ran into a Time Agent. Managed to get the guy drunk enough to not notice me swiping out a few parts from his Vortex Manipulator. I feel bad for him, poor guy was having a bad day as it was, but I needed the extra parts. For some reason my time jumper didn’t work properly in this dimension. It was having trouble calibrating coordinates.” Freya finished her tea and reached for another biscuit as Jack barked out a laugh.

“You ran into a Time Agent the moment you got here; talk about coincidence! I was a former Time Agent myself.” Smirking, Jack walked over to the door, leaning out a bit, and asked Ianto if he would be kind enough to bring some more tea.

Freya sighed but gave Jack an amused look. “Yeah, there seems to be a lot of coincidences happening around me lately. Anyway, I swapped out my old parts for the new ones and let me tell you, navigation in this universe is a bitch. Took me all over the place before I finally figured out how to narrow down the coordinates. Eventually, after some detours, I was able to get to Cardiff and that’s when the time jumper finally quit. So here we are.”

The Doctor raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath before stating, “That’s one hell of a story, of which, I’m sure, you’ve omitted quite a bit.”

“You’re right.” Freya said calmly as Ianto came in with another round of tea. “As much as my mother trusted you, I’m not sure how much information about you that she might have, shall we say, exaggerated. I want to be certain that you are the man she told me about before giving you the rest of the details. For now, though, I think we are in a good place. The only problem at the moment is identifying the tears and where they might be. The biggest hurdle that Torchwood, from my universe, faced was determining what the tears looked like. Most only lasted seconds and by the time Torchwood identified them, they were gone.”

Taking a sip of his tea, the Doctor contemplated her words. That was curious. If the tears only lasted mere moments, it was no wonder the humans couldn’t find them quickly enough.

“And another thing, Doctor,” Freya said quietly, interrupting his train of thought, “they were nearly untraceable. We can’t identify the epicenter or determine when the next one will appear. It’s as if they all happen at once but at different points in time and that doesn’t make any sense.”

That did present a problem and one not easily solved. He might be able to hunt down one or two of the tears, but by the time the TARDIS might find one there was a high probability it would be gone before he could even run scans on it. He ran a hand through his hair in contemplation. “Well, how did Rose find one?”

Freya bit her lip; that was something that even she wasn’t sure about. She really didn’t have a clue how her mother was capable of just sensing them and it made Freya wonder what her mother’s connection might have been. Or if there even was one. “Honestly, I haven’t a clue.”

Shoving away from the desk, the Doctor paced around the room muttering and tugging at his hair. After a few moments he sighed heavily and stated, “Well, the only thing we can do is run through some diagnostics on that ‘dimension jumper’ and see if we can’t figure out something from that. In the meantime you should get some more rest and we’ll see what Martha needs.”

“You’re not running off without me, Doctor. I want to see what all the fuss is about.” Freya turned around to face the pinstriped man, staring sternly at him to get her point across. He wasn’t going to leave her behind.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” A smile flitted across his face as he took in his soon to be companion. This would be different; he could feel it underneath his skin. There was something about her that just screamed at him and it wasn’t because she was Rose’s daughter. Something so very obvious, but he couldn’t see it.

Rose would know.

Even now, she would tell him what he was missing; the important fact that would pull everything together. Burying those thoughts, knowing no good would come of them, the Doctor stopped his insistent pacing and went back to lean against the desk. “Well, I guess that settles it then.”

“Yup.” Freya stood up, swaying a bit before Jack reached out a hand to steady her. Thanking him, she waited for the Doctor to speak again.

“Well,” the Doctor stressed slowly, “I guess we should go tell Donna we’re almost ready to leave.”

He stood and walked to the door, holding it open for Freya and Jack. They all walked back into the main room, spotting Donna and Gwen talking animatedly about something or other. Both women stopped speaking the moment the trio started making their way over to them.

Freya saw her dimension jumper being analyzed by a woman wearing glasses and a lab coat. Quirking a brow, she looked at Jack curiously.

“Toshiko Sato, but we just call her Tosh. Resident technical genius; you’d like her.” Jack said as the woman in question raised her head as they approached. She grinned warily at them, eyes never straying from Freya.

Interesting, Freya thought as they passed the woman to meet up with Donna and Gwen. The Doctor lingered behind them, looking around at all the different equipment.

Donna was the first to speak. “We all set? And you,” she bit out, walking around Jack and Freya and poking the Doctor in the chest, “behave. I don’t want you getting all high and mighty on her or I’ll put you in your place, you hear me?”

Paling a bit, the Doctor nodded vigorously. Freya wondered just what exactly the Doctor’s and Donna’s relationship was; were they just friends or more like siblings? Either way, it was certainly entertaining.

The Doctor quickly busied himself with the dimension jumper while Jack pulled Freya into a tight hug. “Make sure that you get Rosie back and tell her I miss her dearly; I want to hear all about how well the Doctor ‘dances’,” he whispered to her, waggling his eyebrows, and she smacked him as her face contorted with disgust.

“That’s nasty, Jack. You do know exactly who I am, correct? Those are some mental images that I try to avoid thinking about.” Shuddering at the thoughts his words produced, Freya murmured her deepest thanks to him. “If you ever need anything, well, I’d say you could call me but I don’t think my phone gets any service in the Time Vortex.”

She took out a small phone that Jack recognized as 51st century technology just as the Doctor swaggered over to them. “Ooo, what’s this? A phone. I can upgrade it, if you want?” he offered, leaning in to inspect the phone. Freya handed it over with no small amount of hesitancy and the Doctor snatched it from her hand. He pulled out a small, cylindrical device that she could only guess was the infamous sonic screwdriver. A whirring sound emitted from the device as the Doctor removed the backing and soniced the internal parts of the phone. He then started to babble. “Let’s see: 51st century, Carceeniien Galaxy, Planet Porsha, the Goragan Market Place, am I correct?”

Freya was stunned. “How the hell did you guess that?!”

“Well, I am a genius. Wasn’t that hard to guess, really,” he preened as he handed the phone back.

“Doctor, what did I just get done telling you?” Donna barked at him.

The Doctor at least had the decency to look a smidgen chastised before bounding off towards the TARDIS, dimension jumper in hand. Everyone waited for the doors to close behind him before saying their last goodbyes. Freya gave Jack her number just in case anything happened or he needed anything. He gave her one last hug and kissed her on the forehead, which caught her by surprise.

Jack went to give Donna a handshake, but the red haired woman had other ideas as she pulled him into a hug that may have lasted longer than absolutely necessary, although he didn’t seem to mind at all. Donna started waltzing over to the TARDIS, telling Freya to hurry up.

Gwen walked over to Freya and shook her hand, giving a warm smile. Freya thanked them one last time and waved goodbye before heading over to Donna, who was waiting rather impatiently by the doors. Donna went through first and Freya just stood there for a few seconds, soaking it in.

This was it.

She was there; she had finally made it.

Something warm and pleasant tingled in the back of her mind. Oh! Her mother told her about the TARDIS; she gets into your head. She should feel apprehensive about that, but she didn’t. It was oddly comforting.

Grasping hold of her mother’s key, Freya took a deep breath and steeled her nerves as she stepped over the threshold into the TARDIS for the very first time.


	9. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello! Same thing as always. New chapter for ya'll! :D This story is un-betaed. All mistakes my own. Feedback is greatly appreciated! Feel free to drop me a comment or two. :)  
> Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything you recognize.

It was just like in her mother’s stories; the inside defied logic with its enormous size crammed into a small box. She remembered the one where her mother accidentally got lost during one of her first nights there. It took her hours just to find the galley, where the Doctor was sipping tea and nibbling on some toast.

It was absurd how unbelievable the whole thing was and Freya just burst out laughing.

The Doctor looked up, completely confused by this strange reaction to his magnificent time ship.

Freya continued laughing as she started to mutter under her breath, “It’s true. Absolutely true. I can’t believe it. It’s real. All of it!” Her giggles eventually subsided, but her eyes continually darted throughout the room, taking in everything.

Unbelievable!

It was as ridiculous as it was amazing. Fantastic!

Both the Doctor and Donna were giving her strange looks and she decided that it was best to calm down a bit, although that was almost a herculean task. It was completely dazzling.

“Sorry, sorry,” she stammered out between fits of giggles, “it’s just, wow. I never, I just never thought I would ever see it.”

The other two occupants’ expressions softened at her words, knowing that this was a shock to her in many more ways than one. It was something out of a fairytale, literally in her case. She had heard the stories all her life, each one more grand than the last, and now she stood in the one place she never thought she would.

“All right then!” The Doctor clapped his hands together and swanned over to her, gesturing to the large console occupying the middle of the room. “Welcome to the TARDIS! She’s a bit temperamental at times, likes to move the rooms around a lot, but you get used to it. There should be a room for you around here somewhere, I’m sure.”

He launched into the basics about the ship, describing the many rooms that were bound to turn up and watch out for the pool, it likes to appear in the library on occasion.

“You have a library?” Freya interrupted excitably, her eyes lighting up at the prospect.

Books! Something she’d missed for the longest time. Spending hours upon hours looking up anything that caught her fancy, be it new species or planet she’d never heard of, or stories of far off worlds and marauding travelers. She used to sneak into her grandfather’s office late at night to grab a new book that he received as a gift from grateful alien species. Every language she could possibly learn, right there, at her very fingertips. She would teach herself most of the time, seeing as very few humans who knew about alien species could speak their languages.

She usually got in trouble the next day, but Pete normally let her keep whatever book she snuck off with.

But she wondered if the Doctor would let her into the library here; maybe she could find something that would help her with the origin of the tears.

“Yes, there is. I will give you a tour of it some other time, but let’s show you to your room first.” The Doctor walked down a ramp leading toward a hallway. “Well, come on then! Don’t just stand there. There’s much to see and you should probably get some more rest before we go meet Martha.”

Donna snarked at him for his attitude again, but Freya didn’t mind as much. He just seemed to be the excitable type. Donna looped arms with her own, just as much in companionship as precaution for Freya’s exhaustion. Yeah, she was going to need a kip after everything that happened that day and maybe a shower too.

They walked through hallway after hallway, following the brown haired man who was chattering away. Freya took in the several rooms lining the walls, each one different and yet inherently the same as all the others. It wasn’t until they reached the hallway with the Arcade Room that they discovered Donna’s room. Right next to it was one with strange circular writing in gold.

The Doctor stopped and looked at the door with fascination, his eyebrows almost touching his hairline. “Well,” he muttered, “that’s different.”

“What is it?” Donna prodded.

“Well, we found her room.”

Freya couldn’t read his expression, but she had a feeling that he had not anticipated the writing on the door. “What does it say?”

He looked at with renewed curiosity. “Your name,” he said simply.

Now that was puzzling, why was it in a language that she couldn’t understand?

Another door situated close to hers, behind the Doctor, caught her eye. On it was the same writing, although slightly different, with the picture of a rose.

A rose.

Oh.

Gently removing her arm from Donna’s hold, Freya walked around the Doctor towards the door and traced the engraving of the rose. She heard a strangled gasp from behind her and turned just in time to catch the tortured look on the Doctor’s face. He quickly schooled his features to a neutral expression, but she could tell that she was treading on thin ice. Not wanting to upset him, she stepped away from her mother’s old room.

Walking back over to her own bedroom door, she was happy to note that Donna was only a room away if she ever needed something. She smiled at the two of them, suddenly excited at what she might find. Her mother said it was very basic at first, much like a hotel room, but over time it became much more personalized and even a bit whimsical.

The Doctor’s giddiness returned and gestured for her to open the door. He bounced on the balls of his heels, rocking back and forth as he waited for her to open it. His eyes lit up as she pushed the door open and all three of them gasped as they took in what was waiting for them.

The entire room was in a variety of shades of purples and grays and whites, with the same circular language strewn throughout the room. The bed was against the far wall with a table situated beside it and a very alien looking lamp with globes of light hovering above it. Along one wall was a set of drawers, a vanity, and a wide couch that curved around the corner of the room. Two doors and a desk occupied the wall opposite it. They all stepped into the room, completely amazed by the design and architecture.

Freya looked up at the slightly vaulted ceiling, except it didn’t really look like a ceiling; colors of every shade swirled around, twisting and exploding all over. It was breathtaking!

“What. The. Hell?!” Donna exclaimed. “Her bed is even bigger than mine!” She smacked the Doctor lightly on the arm. “Is your ship playing favorites?”

Freya watched as they began bickering, a few snickers escaping her. While they were distracted, she wandered further into the room and inspected everything with a restrained excitement. Oh, this was wonderful!

Not able to help herself, she walked over to one of the doors and threw it open. She gasped at the large closet filled with a variety of clothes ranging from leather jackets to ball gowns. There were several types of shoes and shirts and even some ridiculous looking hats; it had everything! It reminded her quite a bit of her gran’s closet.

There were even more drawers in here and she couldn’t resist riffling through to see what there was. Several different types of under garments were in the three sets of drawers closest to her and the others held several types of socks and stockings. Oh, this was incredible.

She practically skipped out of the room to see what was behind the other door, the Doctor and Donna finally joining her in the exploration. She pulled the door open and gaped at the massive bathroom before her.

“Okay, now I know she is definitely playing favorites. Just look at that tub!” Donna was right behind Freya as they fawned over the décor and amenities.

The Doctor for his part could not simply believe the detail that went into Freya’s room; none of his other companions besides Susan received that kind of treatment at first and even then he had just stolen his TARDIS when Susan got her room.

He looked up at the ceiling and questioned his TARDIS’ choices. He received a very odd response, something that didn’t make sense.

She is of us? What does that mean?

The response from his ship was the equivalent of a shrug. Well, that was confusing now wasn’t it? Just who was Freya Tyler?

He knew that she was Rose’s child, could tell by the TARDIS’ initial response to her in the console room and just from the way Freya spoke; she sounded just like Rose at times. Watching her dart around her new room brought up memories of Rose’s first time on the TARDIS. The excitement and thrill of newness. Everything.

But behind the similarities of her mother the Doctor could see a young woman who had her own personality and passion. Her vitality seemed to infect those around her. She was lively even when exhausted. He wondered just what she would be like when she had proper rest.

He decided to cut short their little visit to allow Freya some privacy. Of course his initial attempts went unheeded as the two women discovered the rain shower.

“Okay then! I think it’s best that we leave you to it. Come on Donna, I can show you some more tricks with TARDIS navigation,” he coaxed as Donna turned to face him.

Freya was too enthralled with the bathroom, trying to decide if she wanted to try the bath or the shower first, to notice the two of them leave. She finally realized that she was alone when she heard the bedroom door click.

She walked out of the bathroom to inspect the drawers sitting by the far wall. She found several sets of jimjams, pants, shirts, and some more undergarments. Snagging what she would need, Freya placed the clothes on the bed and walked back into the bathroom where she proceeded to strip off her ruined clothing.

Her boots landed heavily on the floor and her jacket and shirt soon followed. Once she was down to only her knickers and bra, she inspected the reddened, healing skin where the time jumper had torn it apart. It was much lighter than she anticipated which she was thankful for.

Removing the last of her clothes, Freya chose the massive overflow bathtub first, wanting to just soak away her aches and pains for a bit. The tub filled automatically and she found several types of bath oils nearby. Picking up the jasmine scented one she poured in a liberal amount and waited until the tub filled completely before settling herself into the perfectly heated water.

The sweet scent of jasmine mixed with the warm water calmed the rest of Freya’s frazzled nerves. These past few days had been rough, among the worst she’d experienced while in this dimension so far. Thankfully the time jumper survived the last jump and she wasn’t torn apart in the Time Vortex. Jack finding her before someone else with less than savory intentions did was a godsend. And now she was bathing in bath oils in a type of bathroom that she hadn’t used since she was a Vitex heiress; it had been over one hundred years since then.

She had become so used to just roughing it that she felt a bit out of her depth. She loved it here, she truly did, but it was so different than everything she had grown accustomed to.

Cleaning off the dirt and grime of her recent adventures, Freya bathed quickly before climbing out of the bath. She grabbed a fluffy towel sitting on a mat close by and dried herself off and wrapped herself in it. Strolling back out of the bathroom, she dressed and tossed the towel in the hamper.

This was the first time she got the chance to really inspect the bed. The duvet was a royal purple with the circular language stitched all over it in silver. There were several pillows and she was pretty certain most of them were just for decoration. She quickly tossed the unnecessary pillows onto a chair and couch before settling under the covers and resting her head.

Sleep beckoned to her and she found that she could no longer resist it. After a few more seconds of contemplation, her mind cleared of all thought and she fell into a deep slumber.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Doctor was trying to get Donna to understand some of the Gallifreyan semantics of time travel when the TARDIS let him know that Freya was finally sleeping. He breathed out slowly.

This past day had really taken it out of him. He never thought he would see Rose’s children and to have her only daughter actually traveling with him shocked the Doctor far more than he let on.

His mind raced through the possibilities, even the one where she might actually be his and…and it just wasn’t possible. No. He might have entertained thoughts like that after he first lost Rose but now, no. Time Lords hadn’t reproduced naturally for millennia so it just couldn’t be possible.

And yet, he still thought about it.

She was smart, true. Quick and clever, but so was her mother. There were a number of reasons that could explain Freya’s superior intellect. Maybe she was just very intelligent for a human, but still, there was something else there. Something in her eyes. Something on the edge of his senses just begging for attention.

It was so frustrating that he couldn’t figure it out!

“Are you going to stop spacing out there or is your mind going to float away into the clouds?” Donna’s voice broke through his musings and he turned to see her staring at him. “You alright?” she questioned him, worry in her eyes.

“Hm, yeah. Fine,” he replied calmly.

The look that Donna gave him said that she was clearly not convinced of his words. “No you’re not. After everything that happened today there is absolutely no way you could be as calm as you claim. What’s on your mind?”

He didn’t want to close her out but everything that had happened left him reeling. His newest companion was the child of the woman he loved. A child that was proof that Rose had moved on. It hurt to think about it. “I miss her.”

“Rose.” Donna whispered. “I know you do, but think, with Freya’s help there is a good chance that we can get her back. You’ll see.”

Donna hated to see him this way, but she only hoped that Freya’s presence would help him. She was also terrified of how the Doctor would react to finding out who Freya’s real father was. Freya needed to tell him soon or she may lose any trust she gains from him.

She could only hope that things turned out alright and Rose Tyler eventually made her way back to this dimension because these two needed her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Freya was again lying on the couch in her old apartment. As she sat up, the scent of tea and pancakes drifted from the kitchen.

“Ah, you’re up. That’s good. How was your first meeting with the Doctor, cub?”

Her mother’s doppelganger was standing by the doorway with a cup of tea in her hand. Her stare unnerved Freya, but she didn’t say anything.

“You’re still uncomfortable around me then? I made you some breakfast. Would you like some?” Her mother walked over to her and handed her the cup of tea while grabbing hold of her hand. She led Freya into the kitchen area where there was a plate of pancakes and some toast with jam sitting on the table. “He can be rude, but I figured you already discovered that. I apologize for my pilot’s behavior.”

Freya took a seat and just watched her mother make some more tea while humming a strange tune. Freya spoke up finally. “I know that song. What is it?”

“It’s my song. You’ve heard it all your life. Whenever you’re scared or alone I would sing it for you. It’s much louder for you now because you are within my walls.” The other woman smiled amicably while waiting for the water to heat up. “You are safe here, cub. Always.”

“Okay.” Freya replied simply. What else could she say? She was talking to the Doctor’s ship. She was talking to the TARDIS. “Wait, why didn’t I remember our first conversation?”

Her mother clicked her tongue in thought before answering, “Because I am talking to your subconscious, cub. Your conscious mind won’t remember any of this, but just as well. It is my way of comforting you. Eat if you’d like; later you will go to the galley and get some real food because you need your strength. You are going to be very busy soon.” She leaned over the table and brushed a bit of hair out of Freya’s face and cupped her cheek. “My cub. My Wolf is on the move. Things are progressing quicker than we thought. Be on your guard.”

Freya filed this information away even if she wouldn’t remember it consciously. If this was her subconscious then she could only hope that her body would remember this conversation even if her mind did not.

The dream began to fade like before, but she didn’t question it this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blinking awake, Freya took in her surroundings before registering that she was in the TARDIS. She was with the Doctor. She lay there, soaking it all in.

After a few more moments of enjoying the remarkably soft bed, Freya dragged herself out from underneath the warm blankets and went to her ensuite to wash her face and attempt to tame her wild hair. Almost three hundred years old and she still struggled with random hairs sticking up all over the place. Finally fed up with it, she combed it back into a high ponytail and left it alone. She checked the condition of the skin on her arm to make sure it was healing properly and then wandered over to the closet to find some new clothes.

She found a comfortable grey v-neck t-shirt and some black jeans that were loose but form-fitting enough to not snag on anything. Next, she grabbed some socks and a pair of black leather lace-up boots of a durable design that were made for almost any kind of terrain. She didn’t want to wear her large leather jacket anymore and decided to find a coat in her own size that she hoped would work for whatever they might come across. At the back of the closet was a deep plum leather jacket with several pockets, including some hidden ones, that fit her just right.

Upon closer inspection of the jacket’s pockets, Freya discovered that they appeared to be bigger on the inside. She laughed. Everything on this ship must be bigger on the inside.

Satisfied with her outfit, she picked up her bag and headed out to grab some tea in the galley.

By the time she found the galley, which was a shorter trip than she thought it would be, Freya was surprised to find the Doctor and Donna chatting away at the table. There was already a third cup sitting next to Donna. They must have known she was up.

“Did you have a nice kip?” Donna asked Freya as she sat down at the table.

Taking a sip of the warm tea, Freya nodded. “Feeling a lot better than I was. I didn’t even want to leave the bed. Best sleep I’ve had in a while.”

“That’s good.” The Doctor grinned widely at her. He seemed much cheerier than he had earlier. “Well, grab something quick to eat while I set the coordinates for Earth again. It seems we have an appointment.”

He downed the rest of his tea and left quickly.

Freya frowned as Donna huffed, “He’s in a rush.”

Although they had come to terms with one another’s existence, there was still so much they needed to work through. So much that needed to be explained. “Yeah,” Freya responded absently.

Donna gave her a sympathetic look before she stood up and gave Freya a mini-tour of the galley and how to use the Doctor’s ‘modified’ toaster without burning herself, or accidentally activating its flight setting.

A flying toaster, Freya giggled, that was different.

After a quick meal, Donna led Freya towards the console room where they found the Doctor already bouncing around the console. He greeted them both and warned them to grab onto something; it was time to meet Martha.

They all shared a smile and held on as the Doctor pulled a lever as the TARDIS disappeared out of the Time Vortex.

Landing with a small thud, the Doctor jogged excitably towards the door as Donna and Freya steadied themselves. He was out the door within seconds and Donna was right behind him.

Freya hesitated.

She could hear them talking to someone as she slowly edged towards the open door where an alleyway lay beyond. She was anxious, yet excited.

Her first ‘adventure’ with the Doctor.

She would have been lying if she ever said that she had not dreamed about what it would be like to travel with the man in the magic box. In fact, he often featured in her own imaginary adventures when she was a child.

But this was different; this was the real thing.

Biting her lip, Freya took the plunge and stepped out into the alley beyond the TARDIS.


	10. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Hello again! Okay, this is the last update tonight. This is the latest chapter. I'll be updating this account at the same time as my ff.net and Teaspoon accounts from now on. This story is un-betaed. All mistakes are my own. Feel free to drop a comment or two when you finish reading. I love feedback! :D  
> Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or anything you recognize.

After taking in her surroundings, Freya turned towards the newest addition to their group: a dark haired woman dressed in all black, looking very military. Ah, this must be Martha.

"Hello," Freya greeted the other woman as she walked towards her.

Something in the woman's expression shifted, her eyes suddenly guarded and defensive. Oh, she thought Freya was a threat. Understandable.

The Doctor cleared his throat and attempted to diffuse the situation. "Ah, Martha, this is what—well who—Jack wanted to see me about. Martha Jones, meet Freya Tyler. Freya, meet Martha Jones." He gestured between them and smiled, hoping with everything in him that they didn't start arguing. "Please, don't fight," he muttered weakly.

Martha gave him a scathing look before smiling kindly at the newest member of their group, her expression softening immediately. "Martha Jones." She stuck out her hand which Freya took gratefully, giving her a smile in return.

"Freya Tyler. It's good to meet you. Although, I'm afraid I haven't been around long enough to hear much about you," Freya announced amicably. She had a feeling that she might just like Martha Jones quite a bit.

After a few more words, at the Doctor's expense, Martha pulled out a radio and signaled for 'Operation Bluesky' to begin. That's when Freya noticed that they were in a warehouse district.

The entire area flooded with military vehicles and ground units, as the Doctor questioned Martha about what they were after in the warehouse.

"Illegal aliens," Martha responded. Freya knew that the woman wasn't talking about immigrants. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard the distant shouts at the workers in one of the factories that it was a UNIT operation.

Martha started shouting out orders and ran in the direction of the warehouse.

"Is that what you do to them? Turned her into a soldier?" Donna's words were soft but they hit their mark, judging by the discomfort of the Doctor.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," Freya muttered under her breath, and the Doctor shot her a look.

The entire area was teeming with soldiers and workers were being arrested left and right. It wasn't until a few moments later that Martha returned. Freya realized that she must have missed part of the conversation earlier, but it seemed as though Martha Jones was actually Doctor Martha Jones.

They followed her towards the field base of the operation—in the back of a large semi trailer—where they were greeted by Colonel Mace. Donna and she were rather surprised to discover that the Doctor used to work for UNIT, which was something that her mother must not have known about.

Despite the fact that UNIT was handling many of the procedures in this kind of operation properly, Freya cringed about some of the sloppier elements of the entire fiasco; Donna was right about arresting several workers in broad daylight, although she had a different interpretation about the operation than Freya. Colonel Mace explained to them about the fifty-two deaths that occurred all at the exact same time at different points on Earth.

He and Martha took turns describing the new system being used in automobiles known as 'ATMOS', or Atmospheric Omission System, and it was created to reduce carbon dioxide emissions given off by gas powered vehicles. Admittedly, it sounded like an amazing system, but that didn't explain why the Doctor was being called in for help.

There must have been something extraterrestrial about it.

UNIT was looking for an expert on all things alien and, of course, who better to ask than the Doctor? It took him a little while to catch on though. For a genius, he was a bit slow at times.

"Okay, so why would aliens be so keen on cleaning up our atmosphere?" Donna questioned the Doctor, as soon as the rest of UNIT left the room.

"Very good question," the Doctor mused, as he looked over the ATMOS device.

Donna contemplated for a moment before suggesting, "Maybe they want to help? Get rid of pollution and stuff."

"Unlikely," Freya chimed in. "This system is hooked up to millions of cars. Imagine how easy it would be to turn millions of cars into millions of weapons. Something about this doesn't match up."

The Doctor was impressed by Freya's assessment; she certainly knew what she was doing in a situation like this. He stared at the device as she walked over to him, plucking it out of his hands to take a look at it herself.

"If it is alien," Freya said, as she inspected the object. "Why go through all this trouble? If they were planning to invade Earth this seems wholly unnecessary."

"Yes, it does. Seems a roundabout way to invade a planet," he commented.

He watched Freya as she worked with the object, careful not to set anything off. It was strange how very like Rose she was and yet, nothing like her at all. She had the ability to diffuse a situation naturally and yet simple things seemed to confuse her at times.

Maybe he was reading into the situation too much too soon. He would observe her and determine her true characteristics after he's spent a little more time around her. Unfortunately, he was very bad at dealing with emotions and their situation involved quite a bit of vulnerability. He also had a feeling that Freya would put him in quite a few situations that he wasn't entirely comfortable with, starting with finding out exactly who her father is and how he fit into the equation.

After a few more moments of fiddling around with the device, Freya handed it back to the Doctor, who instantly began muttering to himself about the ATMOS. Donna sidled up to Freya and stated quietly that she was going to check personnel.

"Need any help?" Freya asked her.

Donna grinned conspiratorially. "No, no, you and the Doctor need some time alone together to get to know one another."

The Doctor apparently hadn't noticed Donna's absence as he analyzed the ATMOS device.

Great, this wasn't going to be awkward at all. It wasn't that Freya didn't want to get to know the man who was biologically her father, it was just that she didn't really know how to go about it. Sure, when her mother told her stories about the Doctor, Freya envisioned the different ways they would get along but, now that she was faced with that opportunity, it seemed as though all her carefully thought up conversations just flew right out the window.

The Doctor was completely different from how she thought he'd be. Not good or bad different—just different.

"So, what's the verdict? Alien?" Freya leaned over his shoulder as he crouched down to inspect it. "It looks like it might have been made by humans, but definitely not this era. Time travel perhaps?"

"Well, the technology is not available to humans during this age so you're correct about that; however, I don't think time travel was involved." He thought there may be some alien involvement, though.

They lapsed into silence as they continued to look over the device. Eventually, Martha and Colonel Mace reappeared to determine the Doctor's assessment.

The Doctor murmured, "Ionizing nano-membrane carbon dioxide converter, which means that ATMOS works. Filters the CO2 at a molecular level."

"We know that," Colonel Mace stated in frustration. "But what's its origin? Is it alien?"

"No, but it's decades ahead of its time. Look, do you mind? Could you stand back a bit?" the Doctor demanded.

The Colonel was taken aback. "Sorry, have I done something wrong?"

"You're carrying a gun! I don't like people with guns hanging around me, alright?" the Doctor all but barked out.

Well, Freya thought to herself, that's where some contention in their relationship might pop up. It's not that Freya liked guns; it was more that she really didn't have a choice. Working for Torchwood had taught her that sometimes the only way to stop more people from dying was to pull the trigger.

Her hand convulsed by her side as bitter memories rose to the surface; memories that had haunted her for more years than she cared to count. She remembered Donna's words from earlier about the Doctor turning people into soldiers.

Once a soldier, always a soldier.

Rose wanted to keep Freya from ever turning into someone who depended on a gun, but there were moments when a gun felt like the only defense she had. There were things Freya had done that she was not proud of; things that she deeply regretted, but she couldn't change the past and she couldn't bring the dead back to life.

However, there were also parts of her, deep and buried but still there, that didn't regret what happened that night so many years ago. And those parts still cheered her for what she did. Sometimes she wondered if she did the right thing or the wrong thing.

In many ways, he deserved it, but what right did she have to decide who lived and who didn't. He had hurt several people and she should have stopped him sooner, but she didn't.

Was she any different from that man?

The man who—

"Oi, you lot!"

Freya startled out of her thoughts as Donna swept into the room.

"All your Storm Troopers and your sonics—rubbish. Should have come with me."

"Oi, I asked!" Freya laughed, hoping that it didn't sound too forced.

Donna bumped her shoulder, a smile on her face.

The Doctor was confused. "Why? Where've ya' been?"

"Personnel."

Donna filled them in on her discovery. Apparently, none of the workers were sick. Ever. Now that was a surprise.

"You've been checking out the building; should've been checking out the workforce," Donna boasted.

Not able to contain herself, Freya grinned genuinely this time. "Oh, Donna Noble, you are a gem!"

"I can see why he likes you. You are good," Martha agreed.

"Supertemp!" Donna laughed, proud of herself for the discovery.

Colonel Mace asked Martha to examine all the workers and find out what was happening with them. Donna went to help Martha while Freya chose to stick with the Doctor and Colonel Mace.

"So, Colonel Mace, if aliens didn't make this device then who did?" Freya asked him, confused as to why they hadn't looked into that first.

"Luke Rattigan himself," the Colonel stated, as though it were common knowledge. Interesting.

They were led back to the field base where the Colonel described just exactly who this 'Luke Rattigan' character was. Child genius; inventor of a search engine at the age of twelve; head of an academy for other prodigies.

Genius? That's debatable. Freya would like to meet this 'Luke Rattigan' because she had a distinct feeling he was well aware of what was going on with the ATMOS.

"Are you coming with me?" the Doctor asked her.

Freya thought that she might want to take a look around the factory, but that could wait until later. "Yeah. If this kid is the 'genius' behind this device, I want to know just who he's working for."

Narrowing his eyes as they exited the field base, the Doctor waited until the Colonel had gotten far enough ahead of them before leaning down and asking her softly, "Who he's working for? Have you seen this technology before?"

The situation seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't remember why. "There's something; I don't know what it is. Maybe I'll remember after we find out who exactly is behind ATMOS."

The Colonel wanted to come with them as well, but both Freya and the Doctor felt that he might hamper the investigation. Donna caught up with them before they left and told the Doctor she was going home.

Freya guessed that it was just to see her family and to warn them about the possible dangers of the ATMOS. The Doctor wasn't as observant.

"Great big outer space dunce," Donna taunted.

"Yeah." The Doctor scratched his face sheepishly.

Freya snorted out a laugh. These two were so amusing.

Donna convinced them to give her a lift back to her home before they took off to Rattigan Academy. She was planning on meeting them back at the factory, warning them to be careful and not to start arguing. After they confirmed the plan, Donna waved them off, telling them not to take too long. The Doctor started complaining about wasting time, so the women shot him a dirty look, he instantly quieted.

As they traveled, their UNIT escort, Ross, told them about the Rattigan Academy. "It's all a bit Hitler Youth. Exercise at dawn and classes and special diets."

Freya frowned. "Seems a bit closed off too. Guess they don't take well to outsiders."

"No, Luke Rattigan doesn't like interference," Ross told them.

"It also seems a bit strange that you would have the ATMOS installed in this vehicle, considering how dangerous it is," she mused.

"Tell me about it. They fitted it standard in all government vehicles. We can't get rid of them so we can prove there's something wrong. Drives me around the bend," he said, just as they turned into the drive of the academy.

"Oh, nice one." The Doctor laughed.

"Timed that perfectly," Ross joked.

"Yeah, yeah you did." They all giggled a bit at that.

"This is your final destination," the voice on the ATMOS said.

Freya winced a bit. "That's a bit ominous. Sounds like something out of a horror story."

After arriving at the academy, they wandered around the property, until they spotted Luke Rattigan himself with a group of students running behind him.

"Fancies himself a general, I bet," Freya said as they drew closer to Luke, noticing his authoritative stance.

The Doctor added, "Or someone of power. Keep an eye out for anything unusual."

"You mean the entire academy? The whole place makes my skin crawl," she muttered to him just as Luke Rattigan turned around to greet them.

They exchanged pleasantries and Freya couldn't help but notice the unpleasant look on Luke's face when he thought no one was looking his way. She was damned near sure that he was involved, but wondered who was really pulling the strings because it certainly wasn't Luke.

They entered into one of the labs of the academy and it had the same effect on both Freya and the Doctor as it would a child walking into a candy shop. Freya's eyes lit up as she spotted several different inventions that she hadn't had a chance to tinker with in a long while.

"Ooo, gravity stabilizers and terraforming modules! And oh! That's upside down; wouldn't want to accidentally set that off in a room full of people." She corrected one of the student's projects and had to be waved back over by the Doctor before she lost track of why they were there in the first place. "Oh right. Sorry."

"This is brilliant!" The Doctor was practically vibrating with excitement. "Did you know? With equipment like this you could, oh I don't know, move to another planet or something?"

Luke's lips pressed together as agitation flitted across his face. "If only that was possible."

"If only that were possible. Conditional clause," the Doctor corrected.

Freya almost laughed at the Doctor's intentional goading of the other man, who looked quite put out at being corrected. Oh, this kid was not used to someone acting smarter than him. This would prove very interesting.

Luke sneered at the Doctor as he ground out, "I think you better come with me."

All three of them shared a look before following the immature brat, er, genius, out of the room. This kid was beginning to grate on Freya's nerves.

When they entered into what appeared to be, well, Freya didn't know exactly what kind of room it was. "Nice digs," she commented sarcastically.

The Doctor wandered throughout the room, looking around. "I was just thinking: 'What a responsible eighteen year old! Inventing zero carbon cars. Saving the world!'"

He was searching for something, but what? Freya noticed a massive structure on the other side of the room. That didn't look right.

"Takes a man with vision," Luke shot back.

Yeah, Freya mused to herself, very short sighted vision. She caught onto the Doctor's train of thought and told Luke, "The ATMOS system only gets more people on the road and more people on road means more petrol being used. Not very efficient if you ask me."

Luke almost growled at her, "I didn't ask you. And that's a tautology. You can't say 'ATMOS system' because ATMOS stands for Atmospheric Omission System. S-so you're saying it's 'Atmospheric Omission System system.' Do you see 'Mr. Conditional Clause?'" He turned his attention away from Freya and towards the Doctor. That didn't sit well with her; she was the one speaking!

"It's been a long while since anyone denied you anything, am I right, Mr. Rattigan?" Freya's tone was biting, but she didn't care.

Luke's face was turning very red, Freya noted with a certain amount of glee. He muttered angrily, "I'm still right though."

"You haven't had someone to tell you when to stop, so you get whatever you want because you're 'the genius.' Who could deny you? Well, I use the term genius very loosely in your case. Granted, you're smart but I wouldn't classify you as 'genius' material. Still though, you're clever. It's not easy being smarter than most others, is it? Seeing all the things that other people miss because it's practically screaming at you. All those facts waiting to be discovered; all those theories to be tested. And you're alone because everyone else can't see what you see," she said, lowering her voice as she drew closer to him.

"Yeah." Luke's tone was wistful.

"And now that I've had a chance to meet you and see the individual responsible for the ATMOS, I've finally figured it out," Freya boasted as she took another step closer to Luke.

"Figured what out?" Luke asked distractedly. Well, it seemed as though being a 'genius' still didn't get Luke Rattigan all the attention he wanted. He was fidgeting, a blush making its way up his neck the closer she got to him. Freya wondered if he's ever dated at all, judging by his reaction to her nearness.

She almost laughed.

"That you most certainly did not make the ATMOS all by yourself. Am I correct?" she asked, turning around to face the Doctor.

He was smiling at her, impressed by her deduction. Oh, she was good. "Most certainly. Finding something like the ATMOS on Earth in this time period is like finding a mobile in the Middle Ages. But no, that's not it." He wandered over to the unusually large structure. "It's like finding this in the middle of someone's front room!"

Oh, so it was a front room, Freya mused to herself. She was still confused as to why there was a swimming pool, though. Oops, got distracted again. The Doctor's still talking.

"And to me this looks like a teleport pod!" he announced, as he pressed a button on the massive device and promptly vanished.

"Ah, she said he does that a lot," Freya muttered under her breath.

A few seconds later, the Doctor reappeared, yelling for both her and Ross to get out. Another figure appeared in the teleport. The Doctor pulled out his screwdriver and disabled the device.

"Sontaran!" the Doctor shouted as the figure stepped out of the teleport.

"Who is he?" the Sontaran asked Luke.

"Well," the Doctor drawled.

"He didn't give his name," Luke said, panicked at the turn of events.

The Doctor continued on as if he hadn't heard Luke. "This isn't typical Sontaran behavior. Hiding! Using teenagers; stopping bullets! A Sontaran should face bullets with dignity! Shame on you!"

"You dishonor me sir!" it cried out.

The Doctor was slightly amused by this. "Yeah, then show yourself," he taunted.

"I will look into my enemy's eyes!" The Sontaran released its helmet and lifted it off its head, revealing the creature underneath.

Freya's eyebrows shot into her hairline. "It's a thumb!"

"Rude," the Doctor muttered to her.

"And your name?" the Doctor questioned the Sontaran.

"General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet. Staal the Undefeated!" the Sontaran announced boastfully.

"Well that's a rubbish name, isn't it?" Freya piped in, "What are you going to call yourself if you do get defeated? Staal the Undefeated Ninety-Three Percent of the Time?"

Ross and the Doctor sniggered a bit. "He's like a potato. A baked potato. A talking baked potato," Ross noted.

"Where's the butter?" Freya joked back, before the Doctor shushed them both.

"Don't be rude. We look like pink weasels to him," the Doctor told them.

He described the Sontarans' weakness being the vent at the back of their necks, meaning they always had to face their enemy in battle so as to not be easily defeated. He was messing with a tennis ball and racket while he was talking; Freya caught on to his plan, getting ready to run.

"We stare into the face of death!" Staal cried out proudly.

The Doctor, still smiling, taunted, "Yeah, well, stare at this." He bounced the ball off the teleport pod and hit General Staal's vent, knocking him out.

They all bolted for the door, rushing out of the building, as Staal collapsed.

As soon as they made it into the vehicle, they pulled away from the academy and attempted to contact UNIT. The signal on the radio was blocked.

Freya realized that they were still in danger, particularly now that they were using a vehicle with ATMOS installed in it. As they drew closer to the warehouse, the ATMOS told them to take a left. When Ross attempted to turn right the ATMOS took control of the vehicle, driving itself. They had to do something quick, or they were going to die just like the other victims of the ATMOS.

"Shit!" Freya shouted. "Use your sonic!"

The Doctor tried but to no avail. "It's deadlocked!"

"Wait, ATMOS, you are supposed to do the opposite of what we say, correct?" Freya yelled at the device.

"Confirmed," it answered.

"Drive straight into the river! Do you understand? Into the river!" the Doctor and Freya shouted.

The vehicle drove until it stopped dead at the edge of the water; all three of them clambered out and took off running. They ducked down, ready for the car to explode, only to hear a loud pop as the ATMOS malfunctioned and went dead.

Lifting her head, Freya remarked, "Really? That was a bit anticlimactic."

"Be thankful that was all," the Doctor chided, as he got to his feet.

They caught a taxi and Ross used his UNIT badge to convince the driver to give them a ride. The driver dropped them off at Donna's house.

When Donna answered the door, Freya gave her a grin before announcing, "You would not believe what just happened."


	11. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay, I was job hunting for a while there (and yes, I did get a new job :D ). However, I finally finished this chapter so here you are! And don't worry, I have no plans to abandon this story at all. Although, chapters might take a bit longer than usual to get finished. Enough about all that, here you are! This story is un-betaed so any and all mistakes are my own. Thank you for your wonderful feedback! It is most appreciated!
> 
> Enjoy! :D
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

Donna stepped outside as the Doctor went off to check the ATMOS attached to her family’s car. She was amazed by what they discovered and could hardly believe that they managed to cooperate long enough to get something done.  
  
“Wow, Donna, you have so much confidence in us,” Freya remarked sarcastically, earning her a smack on the arm. “Ow! That hurt! Honestly, you could have been a boxer.” Donna gave her a stern look and began dialing Martha’s number.  
  
Crawling under the car, Freya tried to get a closer look at the ATMOS was setup while the Doctor questioned whether Martha had answered her phone yet.  
  
Just then the front door of Donna’s house burst open and Wilfred Mott came barreling out of the house shouting, “Is it him? Is it him? Is it the Doctor?”  
  
“Oh, it’s you!” Wilf cried out as he came to a stop beside the Donna.  
  
“It’s who?” The Doctor looked up, puzzled at who it was before recognition sank in. “Oh, it’s you.”  
  
“What?” Donna looked between them. “Have you met before?”  
  
Wilf turned towards his granddaughter. “Yeah, Christmas Eve. He disappeared; right in front of me!”  
  
“And you never said?!” Donna asked, furious.  
  
Wilf ground back, “Well you never said!”  
  
Wilf introduced himself and the Doctor asked him to not announce that he just met an alien to everyone; he didn’t want to start a panic. Just then Martha answered her phone and the Doctor told her to prevent UNIT from attacking otherwise they will get completely massacred.  
  
The Doctor worked on the other half of the ATMOS attached to the Noble family’s car while Freya wiggled her way out from under the vehicle. Just as she stood up, Wilf turned towards her and gasped. “Freya, is that you?!”  
  
Turning to him, she smiled warmly. “Hello there, Wilf. It’s been a little while since I’ve seen you. How have you been?”  
  
“Been good, but what are you doing here? I thought you were looking for that man to help you with your mum? Wait, is he who you were looking for?” Wilf pointed at the Doctor, who looked up with a sheepish expression.  
  
“Ah, yeah. Seems a bit of a coincidence that me and Donna were looking for the same person.” Freya had noticed that earlier but didn’t comment. She leaned down to whisper to Wilf, “Just don’t mention the whole ‘my real father’ bit. I haven’t had a chance to drop that particular bombshell yet.”  
  
Wilf agreed. “Just don’t withhold that information for too long; he should know.”  
  
Thanking him for trusting her, Freya looked up just as another woman came over and Freya assumed she must be Donna’s mother. Apparently she had met the Doctor too, at Donna’s wedding. The family bickered as the Doctor fiddled with the ATMOS. Suddenly the ATMOS began to release a gas.  
  
The Doctor noted that it wasn’t just exhaust fumes, there was something else in it too. The ATMOS was in almost every car on the planet and that meant the gas was in almost every car on the planet.  
  
Wilf climbed into the car just as the door closed on its own, locking Wilf within. He immediately began to choke on the gas as it was released inside the car.  
  
All of the cars on the street began to release the gas as well.  
  
Think, think, think! Freya racked her brain with possible solutions when-yes!  
  
Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a strange circular device that she inserted onto the lock on the driver’s side door and pressed the little red button on the top. There was a loud grinding noise before the little device lit up green at the top and Freya yanked on the door handle. They all helped Wilf out of the car just as Donna’s mother, Sylvia, came running outside with an axe. “Oh, you got him out. Thank god!”  
  
“What was that?!” The Doctor darted over to her, sonic pointed at the device.  
  
“Oh just a little something I whipped up in case mum and I ever had to bypass a security system. It works for many types of locks, but it works best on physical locks like dead bolts. It uses a small electromagnet to yank the bolt back into the unlocked position. Unfortunately, it also fries most of the electronic parts so the car is pretty much out of commission,” Freya explained as she detached the device. “Sorry.”  
  
Ross drove over to them in a car that seemed unaffected by the ATMOS. He stated that it was the only car he could find without the system attached.  
  
The Noble family walked over to their house just as the Doctor called out to Donna, asking her to come with them. She hesitated as her mother tried to prevent her from going, but Wilf convinced her to join them in the car.  
  
They drove back to the warehouse, bouncing ideas back and forth about how to stop the gas and what to do about Colonel Mace. They arrived at the warehouse and as they stepped out the car, the gas almost overwhelmed them, although Donna was by far the worst off. The Doctor told her to go wait in the TARDIS, indicating that Freya should probably go with her.  
  
“Nah, I’m going to go check out the warehouse. Hey Ross, you don’t mind having a tagalong, do you?” Freya asked the soldier.  
  
“No ma’am.”  
  
Freya smirked as she turned her attention back to the Doctor. “If anything comes up I’ll have Ross contact the Colonel.”  
  
Having previous experience with Tyler women, the Doctor knew that arguing with Freya would prove pointless. If there was one thing he was certain about it was that stubbornness ran in the family. He sighed in defeat. “Fine, but don’t go provoking them. I don’t have time to save you while I’m trying to save the world.”  
  
She snorted rudely. “That’s a bit rich coming from you, but don’t worry that pretty little head of yours. I can protect myself just fine so save the lecture.”  
  
“Oi!” he spluttered indignantly. “I’m just trying to help.”  
  
Rolling her eyes, Freya was about to retort when Donna interrupted her. “Shut up, the both of you! We don’t have time for this nonsense. Now will you two dumbos get a move on!”  
  
They both grudgingly shook hands, an awkward silence passing between before Donna walked over to Freya and gave her a quick hug. “You be careful, alright? No stupid shenanigans.”  
  
“I’ll try to behave,” Freya said as she hugged Donna back. “You be careful, too.”  
  
“I will. I expect you back here when you’re done, okay?” Donna snipped.  
  
Freya gave her a toothy grin and saluted sloppily. “Yes, ma’am,” she said in a badly imitated American voice.  
  
“Okay, well don’t keep Ross waiting. Off you go!” Donna gently nudged her towards the car.  
  
As soon as she dropped herself into the passenger’s seat, Freya turned to Ross. “Alright, let’s go check out this factory.”  
  
Ross nodded and pulled away from the area they dropped Donna and the Doctor off at. Freya knew something was happening at the warehouse; something she missed. Tapping her fingers on her knees, she stared out the window in contemplation as they drove.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
His eyes watched the car disappear around a corner and the Doctor turned his attention to his other companion, who was coughing on the suffocating gas. “The gas is getting worse. You should head back to the TARDIS.”  
  
“Yeah, I noticed,” Donna managed to wheeze out before she had another coughing fit.  
  
Wincing slightly at the sound, the Doctor dug around in his pockets and pulled out a key. “Here. Your own key. Bout time you had your own, don’t you think?” He grinned goofily at her and she glared at him.  
  
“Thanks. We’re gonna talk later, you and me. Don’t even think about getting out of it either.”  
  
Blinking, he scrunched up his face. “What’d I do?”  
  
“Really? Did you not see the way you’re behaving towards Freya. She’s Rose’s daughter. Your Rose.”  
  
The Doctor’s eyes darkened as he muttered, “She’s not my Rose. Not anymore.”  
  
He must have said it too softly for Donna to hear because she merely shook her head, gave him a quick hug, and wished him luck before heading over to the TARDIS in the alleyway where they left her. The Doctor immediately turned on his heel and headed off to meet with the Colonel.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The car came to a stop just outside the warehouse and Ross shut the vehicle off. Stepping out of the car, Freya analyzed the surrounding area swarming with UNIT soldiers. Something was plucking oddly at the time lines.  
  
Something pivotal to this current “adventure” was inside that building, but every time Freya tried to dig further into the time line her headache returned with a vengeance. She winced before pulling out again.  
  
She hated this.  
  
It felt as though she was missing one of her senses, but it was still there at the edge of her mind. It was irritating.  
  
“Here,” Ross said, pulling Freya away from her thoughts. “This will help.”  
  
He handed her a gasmask. She thanked him and put it on just as he was adjusting his to fit his face. As soon as she had hers on, Ross led her toward a large group of soldiers standing near an entranceway to the warehouse.  
  
“Okay, we are going in through the docking entrance and are going to make sweeps of the building. Two teams will take the upper floors while our team takes the lower levels. That alright?” Ross asked her.  
  
She nodded and scanned the group of soldiers wearing the same style gasmasks assembled around them, many looking at her curiously.  
  
One man raised his hand and asked, “Um, sir, why are we taking a civilian?”  
  
“I’m hardly a civilian,” Freya stated at the same time Ross said, “She’s with the Doctor.”  
  
Freya frowned, but knew they didn’t have time to argue about her status of credibility in military tactics. Best just to show them.  
  
When the group heard of her association with the Doctor many of them treated her with a bit more caution and even respect. It seemed the Doctor was quite revered throughout the taskforce. Shrugging, she followed the group inside the warehouse. Freya listened to Ross give commands as the team made their way down the stairs towards one of the lower levels.  
  
As they descended into the first floor beneath the factory, Freya checked for any anomalies in the time lines and, sure enough, there was something beneath them, most likely in the basement. Again, when she tried to push for more information, the pain in her head made her stop and grip the wall.  
  
“Are you alright? I can have one of the soldiers take you back outside,” Ross suggested.  
  
“No, I’m fine. It’s nothing. Just a small headache.” She’d had worse and wasn’t about to be sidelined when she was certain something was going on down there. “Let’s check it out.”  
  
“Right,” Ross said, but Freya could hear his thoughts; he wasn’t convinced, but wasn’t about to argue the point. “Stick close to me.”  
  
Freya shrugged. “I’m fine. Really.”  
  
“All the same, we don’t know what to expect so keep your eyes open for anything that strikes you as odd.”  
  
The comment caught her attention and she remembered something. Unlocking her bag, she reached in and searched for the one device she knew would probably help in their situation. Finding the little spoon shaped device, Freya pressed the green button near the top and a loud beep emitted from it.  
  
“What’s that?” Ross asked.  
  
Freya grinned conspiratorially at him. “Oh, just something I made. It tracks down unusual frequencies, kind of like the one that stopped the bullets in your gun earlier. Makes it easier to find signs of life or advanced technology where there shouldn’t be any.”  
  
Ross looked impressed. “You’re an inventor then?”  
  
“Kind of, yeah,” she said. “Pretty impressive, me.”  
  
“Really? Is it safe?” he asked cautiously.  
  
She twisted a dial on the side and the “scoop” began to rotate, emitting a series of sounds from the tip. “Yeah, works kind of like a radio, but it takes a while to sift through all the other frequencies. It’s especially difficult when there are so many machines around. This might take a while.” The little device sputtered and gave a shrill beep. Freya smacked it and muttered “stop that” before it resumed its previous activities.  
  
The team made their way through the many hallways. Ross continued their conversation as they searched. “So how long have you been with the Doctor? If you don’t mind me asking.”  
  
“Hm?” Freya didn’t even look up at his question. “Oh, not very long actually. Just met him about six hours and twenty-nine minutes ago. My mum was one of his companions, though, so I grew up hearing all sorts of stories about him.”  
  
“Wait, so you just met him today?” Ross asked, shock in his voice.  
  
A sheepish smile appeared on her face as she looked up at him. “I guess so, but we were on his ship and time is relative there. It’s really weird.”  
  
“And he took you along because you are the daughter of his former companion?”  
  
“Well, that’s not the only reason. I need his help. And the universe is in danger so there is that,” she remarked nonchalantly.  
  
He simply stared at her.  
  
“Don’t worry. We’re going to solve this first before we deal with the whole universes collapsing into each other mess.” Freya fiddled with her little invention before it shot sparks at her. Cursing, she adjusted another dial. “My mother sent me with irrefutable proof that she trusts me and, well, he trusts her judgment so, yeah.”  
  
“Your mum? Where is she in all of this?”  
  
Freya stopped what she was doing and looked Ross hard in the eye. “Doing everything she can to stay hidden.”  
  
“From who?” he asked, genuinely concerned.  
  
“I don’t know. I don’t even know what they are or where they came from or what they want from us, but they have chased us across galaxies unrelentingly. My mum told me they were dangerous. Unbelievably dangerous and she needed to protect me from them. Must have figured that finding the Doctor was the best option,” Freya explained.  
  
“Wow, she must be some woman. Was it just you and your mum?”  
  
She smiled at him. “Yeah, for the most part. Never knew my dad. We lived with my grandparents for a while before mum decided we needed our own place. Her best mate, Mickey, lived with us for a while, too. Other than that, it was mostly my mum and I. What about you?”  
  
He appeared surprised that she actually asked him about himself. “Me? Not much to tell, really. I mean, I’ve got my mum and dad, plus my two brothers. Both of them went to medical school, but I chose the military instead. Lived in London all my life. My mum worked for UNIT a long time ago and she remembered hearing about the Doctor from Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. They worked together for some time after the Doctor left.”  
  
A bit stunned, Freya said, “Following your mum’s footsteps, then?”  
  
“A bit, yeah. She was pretty amazing before she retired,” he said proudly. “Mostly I wanted to help people the same way she did. Protecting the Earth from anyone who wanted to do it harm. My whole family’s proud of me. I’m proud of what I do, even if it means not making it home someday. Protecting people, it’s worth it.”  
  
Huh, Freya thought, Ross Jenkins.  
  
There were too few men like him in the world. Willing to save the day even at the sacrifice of his own life. Doing the right thing when everyone else was too scared. She would have been proud to have a partner like him watching her back. He was good man and a man like him could do a lot of good for the world. She had to resist seeing what his future held because she would rather believe he had a bright future ahead of him than to have it destroyed by possible calamity.  
  
That was something she always struggled with. Seeing someone’s future and being unable to change it, even if you could save their lives. There were fixed events where someone would die because time demanded it and Freya had to stand back and watch. Her human instincts warred with her alien biology. Her need to save lives pitted against the need to preserve the time lines. Nothing hurt worse than knowing that someone was supposed to die and there was nothing you could do to stop it.  
  
It was hell. Pure hell.  
  
That’s when she stopped checking personal time lines. She just couldn’t take it anymore.  
  
Especially after…  
  
The past was the past and she couldn’t change it. Why did she keep thinking about that? It was over two hundred years ago and yet it had come to mind twice that same day. It was pointless to dwell on it.  
  
“You really like what you do,” Freya commented. “I used help people often until those…creatures came after us. Always saving the day, helping people when I could. I miss that.”  
  
“Aren’t you doing that now? Helping us with the Sontarans?” Ross asked.  
  
She laughed a bit. “I guess I am. Don’t know how much of a help I am, but I’ll try what I can.” He clapped her on the shoulder and they both laughed when suddenly the device beeped loudly and spun much faster than before. “Oh! Found something.”  
  
“What is it?” Ross asked her as the other soldiers gathered round them. Freya twisted the dials furiously until she narrowed down exactly what frequency the device was picking up.  
  
Putting it close to her ear, Freya listened to the changing tones until finally finding the right one. “Ah ha! Oh. Oh, that’s not good. That is very, very not good.”  
  
One of the soldiers leaned in close hoping to see what it was she was referring to. “What’s not good? What’s going on?”  
  
“It’s the same frequency as earlier, except it’s on the move,” Freya answered.  
  
Ross looked at her expectantly. “Which means what?”  
  
“Which means,” she murmured, carefully adjusting the device. “Which means, they’ve sent in the cavalry. We’ve got dozens of Sontaran soldiers heading straight for us. Ross, I suggest you call all the other groups and tell them to get the hell out of the building. Now!”  
  
“We can’t do that,” he protested. “We have to stop them!”  
  
“No, you can’t. I’m sorry Ross. You can’t stop them. Hell, your bullets wouldn’t even dent their armor even if your guns could fire. With that frequency still going none of your guns will work. We’ll just be target practice for them.”  
  
“Colonel Mace told us to stay here,” one soldier stated, though Freya could hear his panicked thoughts. Images of what appeared to be his family flashed through his mind and Freya saw it all. Every one of those soldiers, even Ross, was thinking about what they could possibly lose.  
  
She knew what to do. “Ross, contact Colonel Mace.”  
  
He nodded and pulled his radio out. “Sir, the Sontarans are making their through the building. What are your orders?”  
  
The Colonel’s voice came over the radio. “Stand your ground. Don’t let any of them pass.”  
  
Freya growled and grabbed the radio. “Colonel, this is Freya Tyler. We met earlier.”  
  
“Miss Tyler, what are you doing in the factory?” he demanded angrily.  
  
Rolling her eyes, she answered, “It’s a little late for the reprimand, Colonel. Order these men to leave the factory. Now.”  
  
“Excuse me—”  
  
“Spare me, Mace. The Sontaran’s weapons are far too advanced for human technology in this era. We don’t stand a chance fighting against them. They are using a Cordolaine signal to stop the bullets making guns useless against them. Order them to retreat and regroup with the rest of UNIT outside.” Freya waited a few seconds, hearing an argument between the Colonel and who she assumed was the Doctor on the other end before the signal cut off.  
  
His voice came over the radio again. “Miss Tyler, please leave with one of the other soldiers—”  
  
“Colonel Mace, I really don’t have time to argue with you on this. I’m not leaving and I’ll put up one hell of a fight if anyone tries to force me out so unless you want my death on your conscious as well, you better give the order for them to vacate the factory. Otherwise this is going to turn into a slaughter. Sontarans are built for battle. They will massacre everyone in this building for fun. Do you understand or would you like me to repeat that for you?” Freya hissed into the radio.  
  
There was another delay before the Colonel responded. “All troops, retreat. That’s an order. I repeat, all troops retreat immediately.”  
  
The sound of stomping caught Freya’s attention.  
  
The Sontarans had reached their floor.


	12. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! I'm back! Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! I love your feedback and take everything into account when writing future chapters. :D Sorry about the delay, work was really crazy there for a while, but I've finally had a break to focus on this chapter. Same thing as always: feedback is wonderful, of course ;D, and this story is un-betaed so any and all mistakes are my own.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or any of its characters.
> 
> Now, onto the chapter! Enjoy! :D

The team ran back the way they came and Freya prayed they didn't encounter any Sontarans on their way out. The sound of gunfire informed them that one of the other teams had just been discovered. Their screams shook her as memories from so long ago of another mission, that had gone bad, assailed her.

She shook herself from such thoughts and focused on the task at hand.

This team would survive; she'd make damn sure of it.

As they rounded a corner, Freya caught sight of some Sontaran soldiers facing the opposite direction and gestured for the entire team to quietly make their way across the hall to the double doors leading towards the stairwell. They managed to slip past undetected, but they almost stopped when they heard another team getting massacred. It was so hard to just leave them, but they wouldn't even slow the Sontarans down if they attempted to fight. It would just end up getting themselves killed as well.

Staying alive was their mission now.

The team hurried up the stairs to the main floor, but something stopped them dead in their tracks.

A lone Sontaran stood in front of the doors leading out onto the main floor of the factory.

Oh, that was cunning, wasn't it? Cut off their escape route. Basic tactic. One thing was for certain; if they wanted out, they needed to dispose of that particular Sontaran without alerting the rest of them. But how to do it?

They settled on a surprise attack using overwhelming numbers. There were several of them and only one Sontaran. "Wait." Freya interrupted the team. "You see that vent on the back of his helmet?"

"Yeah," Ross said.

Freya grinned. "Do you think you could distract him long enough for me to get behind him?"

Ross' eyes lit up as he realized what she was planning. "Yeah, can do. It'll be dangerous though."

"I only need a few seconds, is all. Believe me, I'm fast," Freya whispered. It wasn't the best plan, but it was all they had. She would have to be quick so none of the team got shot. It would take every bit of her training and whatever luck there was to be had to pull it off.

"Ready when you are," Ross murmured as everyone got into position.

They waited a few seconds as the Sontaran turned away from their hiding spot and Freya gave the signal.

It was a flurry of activity, but Freya moved quickly and struck the Sontaran hard with the butt of a gun she nicked off one of the soldiers. Not like it was doing them much good anyway. She only realized seconds after she hit the Sontaran that he managed to fire his gun off one time and one time only.

Fear gripping her gut, Freya turned and saw the dead body of one of the soldiers. He was blonde haired and much too young, his eyes partially open and unseeing. It took everything in her not to grab the Sontaran's gun and shoot him straight between the eyes. Let him know the enemy he just made before she shot him.

No, stop it, she told herself. Getting revenge won't bring the soldier back, even though it would sure as hell make her feel better. Keep moving.

Ross grabbed her arm and dragged her through the doorway, telling her to stay focused. They would mourn him later.

Winding their way through the halls, Freya became aware that they couldn't hear any of the other teams. This could mean that the rest of them made it out.

Or that none made it out at all.

She debated what to do. Run out onto the docking area and pray there were no Sontarans or set up a diversion that lasted long enough for them to escape? It was a difficult choice.

On one hand, if there were Sontarans out there waiting already then they were sitting ducks, so to speak. On the other, if there wasn't any and they set off a diversion anyway, they could possibly be informing the Sontarans that they were there.

However, gunfire erupted behind them as they witnessed several soldiers barreling out of one corridor, Sontarans hot on their trail.

Not waiting for the Sontarans to see them as well, the team sprinted onto the docking area, finding it deserted. Freya could just see other UNIT soldiers standing fifty meters away. Dashing forward, they managed to just clear the dock as the Sontarans came stomping after them.

Everyone that survived out of their team made it to safety just in time as the docking doors closed behind them. Freya could already tell that many of the soldiers were unable to make it out on time, as many timelines snapped and faded away into nothingness.

The Doctor was already running towards her as she left Ross to assist the other ground units. He pulled up short next to her, his expression wary. "Are you alright?"

Freya stopped for a moment and looked down at herself. Some torn clothing, but no real damage. "I'm fine."

"How many made it?"

"Not enough," Freya snarled out as she brushed past him. "Where's Donna?"

The Doctor hesitated before answering, which didn't help Freya's nerves. "She's on the TARDIS at the moment. Let me borrow your phone for a minute."

"Why?"

"So I can call for a pizza because I'm feeling a bit peckish," the Doctor bit out sarcastically. "I need to call Donna."

Freya pulled her phone out of her pocket and handed it to the Doctor, who sauntered off with it.

The gasmask over her face blocked out the gas, but it was causing Freya to feel more than a little claustrophobic at that moment. She walked over to the base of operations where she was certain Colonel Mace was still inside, probably calling out orders for the next offence.

She was in luck. The man was surprised to see her, but there was no hint of shame on his face. Violent thoughts seemed to be a trend for her lately because she wanted nothing more than to shove her fist into his face. Maybe it was being on the sidelines, unable to call the shots, that was making her so irritable.

Either way, he was going to hear a thing or two from her.

"Miss Tyler," Mace said simply.

"Colonel Mace." Her tone was cold, rigidly controlled as she practically tore the gas mask from her face. Oh, she was angry. "I must say, you do not like bending your own rules, do you?"

"Those soldiers were doing their duties—"

"No, those soldiers were walking into a blood bath. How many, Mace? How many could have survived if you hadn't hesitated so damn long, hm? It is your job to protect people, I understand that, but we already saw what the Sontarans were capable of and yet still, you hesitated. Really, great call." Her harsh rebuke caught the attention of everyone in the area.

Most of all, it was the nearly thunderous expression on Colonel Mace's face that gave Freya some much needed satisfaction. Good. She could really use a good argument.

"Miss Tyler, I am not obligated to heed your advice, nor the Doctor's either. UNIT operates under its own protocols—" He began.

"Yeah, and they failed rather spectacularly, didn't they? Brilliant job. Really, it's been a while since I've seen a fuck up quite like that," Freya shouted.

The Colonel's face was bright red with anger as he barked for some soldiers to escort "Miss Tyler" outside. The last thing she saw was him shouting for someone to find the Doctor.

She stumbled out into the choking air, gas mask dangling from her hand. She really didn't need it considering she could adjust her air intake well enough, regardless the gas wasn't exactly pleasant to have filling her lungs. She yanked it into place over her face and turned to go join Ross when she found herself face to face with the Doctor. He was staring at her worriedly, a silent question in his eyes. Giving a shrug, Freya brushed past him again and stalked away.

The Doctor was shocked to see Freya getting tossed out by a pair of soldiers, her face red and blotchy with anger. Judging by the way she was unceremoniously dumped outside the base of operations, he could only assume something had happened between her and Colonel Mace. He walked over to her just as she was about to put her gasmask back on.

"What happened?" he asked her.

She froze before turning around to glare at him. "Nothing. Just a disagreement."

Not another word was spoken between them as she strode away from him towards a group of UNIT soldiers. To say that the Doctor was confused by her behavior would have been an understatement. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to dwell on what caused such tension between Freya and the Colonel and he set about trying to navigate Donna through the Sontaran ship again.

Jogging up to Ross, Freya looked over his shoulder at the floor plan of the warehouse. "What's the plan of attack?" she asked him casually.

Ross started a bit at the sound of her voice, but turned and gave her a grim smile. "We can't figure out how to infiltrate the factory again without risking the lives of all the soldiers involved. It's too dangerous without the proper use of our weapons."

"Yes, it is too risky. However, what if you had the use of your weapons?" Freya asked.

Ross barked out a laugh. "If that were possible, maybe we might be able to distract them long enough to get to the basement. Something is down there and we need to find out why they are protecting it."

Grinning conspiratorially, Freya walked around the table as she pulled an old watch from her pocket. "If you can get me some wire, two D batteries, and an old transistor radio, along with this watch, I may be able to find a way to jam that frequency for you."

"Consider it done." Ross called out some orders to other soldiers before leading Freya over to a group of workers. "So far we haven't gotten anything substantial out of them, but I'll tell you something; they all have accelerated heart rates and an odd sort of work ethic."

Removing her mask, which was quickly becoming a nuisance, Freya walked closer to one of the workers to get a better look at him. The moment she came within arm's length of the man, a horrid stench not related to the gas assaulted her senses. She gagged a bit and stumbled back. "What is that?!"

The other soldiers, along with Ross, looked perplexed. "What was what?" Ross questioned, warily keeping his eyes on the worker.

"That smell! I can't even, what is that?" Freya felt her eyes burn as she put as much distance between her and the worker. Something was very wrong here. "It's like, no, wait. I know that scent. It's much stronger, probably due to the lack of armor, but I'm almost certain that's the same odor as the Sontarans."

All the soldiers just stared at her. Ross looked the most skeptical. "What does that mean? Are they also Sontarans or something? I also find it a bit weird that you can tell the difference in scents that well."

For a moment Freya felt a familiar frustration building up in her gut. It was the same instinct she had every time someone questioned her abilities, claiming that no human was capable of doing half the things she could. Tiny pinpricks of anger, bitterness, and resentment made her want to lash out at Ross for making her feel that way again after so long, but she tamped it down with a great amount of effort. Pursing her lips, she remarked, "It's a talent I've acquired in my line of work. Have to have a sensitive nose."

The looks of confusion and suspicion on the soldiers' faces softened a bit, but didn't go away completely. Calling upon every ounce of patience she had, Freya pushed aside her own feelings and focused on the task at hand. "Alright, well I can ascertain that the Sontarans have done something to these workers that makes them the way, well, the way they are. Whatever that is. What we know for sure is that the best way to find an answer to what exactly we are dealing with is to infiltrate the factory again and find out what the Sontarans are hiding."

No waiting for a response from any of the soldiers, Freya stalked off towards an empty area on the opposite side of the lot, far enough away from the operation to focus on the device she was making. She had to be careful not to twist the wires together, lest she create the wrong frequency instead of the one she was attempting to produce. If she was clever, and was she ever, Freya knew that the right frequency at the correct wavelength would likely counteract the copper excitation in the bullets. It wouldn't be easy, but Freya Tyler was never one to back away from a challenge, unless it involved pears and she was never doing something like that ever again.

That was a lesson learned the hard, as well as very disgusting, way.

Pulling out her soldering iron she picked up in the 43rd century, Freya also pulled out the pocket watch and began to melt down a few of the gears. A soldier came over to her carrying the rest of the supplies she had requested and set them down beside her. She picked up a wire and welded it to the inside of the clock before picking up the transistor radio and welding the pocket watch to the back of it.

After a few more careful adjustments, Freya finished welding the entire thing together before picking up the two D batteries and wrapping them in wire before welding the other end of the wire to the radio.

Her contraption looked as though it was about to fall apart, but Freya wasn't looking for durability in this situation. She just needed it to work long enough for it to get them to the basement. After that, it didn't matter if it fell to pieces.

As she cleaned up after herself, Freya heard Ross call out to her as he waved his arms at the sky. "Heads up, reinforcements are about to arrive."

No sooner had the words left his mouth that a large vessel broke through the cloud of gas, blowing it away from the factory and the surrounding area. Freya stared at the massive ship in amazement. "What the bloody hell is that?!"

"The Valiant. It's one of Britain's greatest achievements." Colonel Mace's voice broke through Freya's thoughts.

She turned to see both Colonel Mace and the Doctor strolling up to them, a grim look on the latter man's face as he saw the ship. There was a story there; Freya could see it in his eyes.

"It's a big ship. Not the first time Britain's made one," Freya stated flippantly. Colonel Mace glared at her, but made no other comment.

"Yes, yes, a very large ship. Cleaned away the gas rather nicely as well," the Doctor piped in, hoping to quell the argument he could sense brewing between Freya and the Colonel.

Mace was handed a gun from one of the soldiers. "Here Doctor, what do you think?"

"Of what? Guns? I don't like them."

Frustration tinged the Colonel's voice as he spoke. "The bullets have a steal coating, no copper on the surface."

Annoyance etched itself onto Freya's face as she realized her device was essentially useless now. It would have been nice to have been informed of this development beforehand, but after her rather heated argument with the Colonel earlier, it was no wonder she was kept in the dark.

She shoved the shoddily made device into her bag and crossed her arms over her chest petulantly. As the Doctor and the Colonel argued over guns and honor, and it really wasn't the time for that conversation, Freya noticed Martha making her way over to them.

Freya hadn't seen Martha since before they left the warehouse earlier that day. The moment Martha came to stand beside her, Freya almost gagged as a horrid smell reached her nostrils.

A very familiar smell.

The Doctor knew. He had to. The fact that Martha was acting strangely was one warning sign, but there was no way he could miss the odor "Martha" was giving off. Or whatever was trying to pass as Martha.

A bright green light lit up the sky as the Valiant fired upon the factory, blowing a massive hole in the roof. The sound of gunfire filled the air and the entire warehouse became a battlefield.

Noticing the Doctor running off after the Colonel into the factory, Freya darted after him, but not before grabbing one the guns Colonel Mace showed them earlier. She grabbed an extra magazine just in case.

Soldiers fell left and right as lasers and bullets were traded by both sides. Freya had to duck out of the way of a few shots fired in her direction before slamming the butt of her gun into the vent on the back of a Sontaran's helmet, taking him by surprise before a soldier gunned him down seconds later.

Trying to make her way quickly through the fight without getting shot, Freya almost lost sight of the Doctor before she saw him run through an open doorway leading in the opposite direction of the Colonel, the fake Martha following after him.

Something burned through Freya's thigh and she shrieked in pain. Looking down, she saw that she'd been hit by a stray bullet.

She collapsed just as a Sontaran swung his gun at her head and she had to duck and roll in order to avoid a couple of lasers. Wrestling the gun from underneath her just in time, Freya focused it as best she could through the pain and fired at the Sontaran's helmet. The bullet punctured the left eye piece and the Sontaran dropped like a rock; dead.

Just as she was about to push herself to her feet, agony shooting through her leg, something hard slammed into the back of her head and everything went black.


	13. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Here is the next chapter. Heads up: please excuse any mistakes on medical jargon (I don't have any medical training) or leave some suggestions for future reference, I would greatly appreciate it. This story is un-betaed. Enjoy! :D  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of it's characters.

A bag dropped to the floor as Freya walked into the apartment, her shoulders and back aching after a tiring day at work. It was repetitive and sometimes boring, but it kept their heads above water during the economic downturn. As much as she hated being griped at by uppity captains telling her that the damages to their ships shouldn’t cost nearly as much as they were being charged, and Freya always had to hold her tongue in check instead of telling them like it was, she did enjoy the work she did.

“Oh, you’re late. Sudden rush at work?” a voice asked from the kitchen.

Sagging onto the sofa in the main room, Freya called out, “No, Gibs busted a compression coupling on that massive cruise liner we’ve been working on for some time now and I had to stay behind to fix it. Can’t see how that man still has a job. He was drunk again, of course.”

Rose Tyler walked into the room with a cup of tea and a plate of Dranin noodles. “I’m sorry to hear that, sweetheart. Here, I made this earlier.”

“Thanks, mum. How was work for you?” Freya dug into her dinner as her mother sat in the chair next to the sofa.

“Hm? Oh, it was alright. I suspect we’re going to be getting a new wave of colonists soon. There’s a civil war happening on Plexia Santo. Heard it was getting too dangerous for the locals to stay for much longer. Bloody Neutroxin gas is killing innocents by the hundreds,” Rose explained as she took another sip from her tea. “Wish we could find a new planet with more work, but we’re kind of financially strapped at the moment.”

It was a common complaint her mother always made when they thought about their future. They had to keep moving around so no one would notice that they didn’t age. Fortunately, they were in a time period where there were more and more colony planets being terraformed. The down side was that money was getting tighter and the local economy was suffering at the moment. It left Freya and Rose without many options.

“It’s alright, mum, we’ve got time. We only just got here a year ago and it’s not so bad. We’ve both got decent work. We’ll get by,” Freya said between bites.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full, you’ll get bits of food everywhere,” Rose chastised. “And I know, sweetheart, but I’m still anxious. I’ll get over it, don’t worry. It’s just that sometimes I wish…”

And there it was. That longing look her mother made when she was thinking about _him_ again. She wished her mother would talk more about him, just so Freya would know what he was like, but it was only a few stories here and there. Although, her mother had been opening up a bit recently, so that was a pleasant change. “Yeah, I know. Do you ever…regret…”

“Don’t. I know what you’re going to ask and I have never once regretted giving birth to you. I may miss the life I once had, but I wouldn’t trade having you for anything, even getting back to our original universe.” Rose stood up after giving Freya a warning look that quickly softened. “I just wish you could have seen it, though. The universe we came from. The Earth I came from.”

Regretting her choice of words earlier, Freya nodded and finished her dinner as quickly as she could. She just wanted to take a quick shower before collapsing on her bed in exhaustion. It was wonderful how they managed to find a decent place when they first arrived on this planet last year. Having a roof over her head, hot running water, and a room of her own was a complete change from the one room cupboards they practically lived out of the last several decades. It was nice.

Rose came back into the room, this time carrying the photo album they had brought with them when they left Earth. “Did I ever tell you about the time Pete caught you hiding under his desk with that Plonian puzzle?”

“You might have, but it was probably a few decades ago or more.”

Rose smiled as she sat down next to her, pulling the thick blanket off the back of the sofa to lie across her lap. “Probably. He could never figure out how you managed to solve it in less than twenty minutes when he’d been working on it for months. Drove him mad!” Rose laughed as she turned on the album, digital pictures coming to life. “You always had such a knack for doing the impossible, but I’m not surprised.” Rose’s expression turned melancholy as she sifted through the pictures. “Always trying to be the best at everything.”

The conversation petered off and Freya quickly finished the rest of her dinner as Rose sat quietly next to her. For a moment, Freya contemplated what she had wanted to ask her mother for some time now. Something she knew would probably end in an argument. It wasn’t that she wanted to upset her mother, but she had to know. “Mum, if there was a way, I mean hypothetically, that we could get back to our original universe, would you…want to?”

Rose’s entire form stilled, her eyes dark and almost cold. “Why are you asking me this, Freya?”

“Well, I had been running through a few calculations and I think I found out where the project, the dimension cannon I mean, went wrong. You see, the temporal plane stabilizer—”

“No. We’re not discussing this,” Rose said curtly, her entire posture rigid. Standing up quickly, she gave Freya a stern look. “Are you finished with your dinner?”

“What? Yeah, but mum, think about it; I could fix the dimension cannon—”

“Freya, enough!” Rose shouted.

Freya stopped and just starred at her mother. Standing just as abruptly as her mother had, she turned and made to leave the room, muttering under breath, “Sorry I asked.”

A hand on her arm stopped her from leaving. Freya didn’t even look behind her as she heard her mother sigh. “Freya, I’m sorry. I know what you’re trying to do, but I don’t think we should draw more attention to ourselves than absolutely necessary. Plus, it isn’t safe. We already lost Mickey…and I couldn’t stand to lose you too. We’re in a vulnerable position right now and I don’t know how long we’ll be able to stay here. Please understand that I really appreciate what you’re trying to do, but right now I just..can’t.”

For a moment Freya just stood still, conflicting emotions twisting in her gut, but she finally gave in. Turning to find her mother staring at her imploringly, she let her mother wrap her arms around her comfortingly. Kissing the side of her forehead, a gesture Freya always knew came after an argument or unpleasant experience, her mother whispered an apology. Sometimes she forgot just how brittle her mother was deep down after losing so many of those she’d cared about over the years. Rose Tyler was the strongest woman Freya had ever known and also possibly the most broken.

Time wore down all its victims and being well over two hundred years old was testament to that fact. She wished more than anything to comfort her mother and make everything alright for the two of them, but she just couldn’t. All that brainpower and there was nothing she could do except hide and hope Torchwood would forget their existence.

That was something she hadn’t let herself think about in a long while. Torchwood, the very organization she worked for over the years they lived on Earth. The very same organization that hunted them down like criminals, or more accurately, the very aliens they caught. To them, Freya and her mother were no more than interesting creatures that could be turned into potential weapons. It left a horrible taste in Freya’s mouth as she remembered some of the things that they were referred to as by Torchwood, but by far the worst one was being considered property of Torchwood.

Property of Torchwood? They were no one’s property and she damn well let them know that. A few well timed computer viruses gave them the chance to escape Torchwood’s clutches and get somewhere safer than Earth.

Rose pulled away, breaking Freya from her thoughts, and said softly, “I wish I could make things right for us. Be a better mother than I have been—”

“Mum, you’ve been the best.” Grabbing her mother’s hands and squeezing gently, Freya murmured, “I know things haven’t been easy with me. I’m sorry that I worry you constantly with my meddling in things that should be left well enough alone, but it’s not something you did or anything you’re responsible for. I am careless sometimes and you always save me when things get too rough. I’m sorry, mum, for not being as supportive as I should have been. Been there for you when you needed me most.”

Rose cupped her daughter’s face in her hands, brushing away the tears that slowly leaked out of her eyes. “Freya, I could not be more proud of you than I already am. Seeing the universe through your eyes has kept me going when I felt like falling apart. You’re my baby, no matter how old you get. No matter how many centuries pass, I never want you to ever forget that I will always be there when you need me, okay?”

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

Freya smiled weakly and asked, “So, what would you think if I told you I was designing a small time machine?”

Rose stilled and murmured, “Wha—”

“Argh!” Freya cried out as pain shot through her leg, forcing her awake. “What the hell?!”

“Sorry, just finished patching you up. We were hoping you wouldn’t come to just yet,” a voice said, cutting through the excruciating pain muddling Freya’s mind.

The whole world seemed to shift awkwardly around her, like the very air itself was moving. “What’s happening?” she slurred out, closing her eyes and fighting down the wave of nausea.

A voice chuckled. “That’s the morphine, Miss Tyler. You took quite a hit on the head earlier, not to mention the bullet in the thigh. You shouldn’t be feeling any pain at the moment, though. I’ll have to up the dosage—”

“No, I’m fine. Don’t need it.” Freya tried to sit up, but the UNIT medical officer gently pushed her down.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said you took quite a hit. You’ve been out for three hours already,” the officer said, grabbing some more morphine. “You don’t have a concussion, which is surprising.”

Freya tried to laugh, but that only aggravated the searing pain in her skull. “Yeah, I’m a bit hard headed, I guess. How did I get here?”

She was given another dose of morphine, although it wouldn’t do much good considering she would simply burn it off quickly. In the meantime, though, the pain subsided a bit which was a small relief.

The officer handed a few sheets of paper to another UNIT soldier before addressing her question. “One of the soldiers pulled you out of harm’s way after you received a blow from a Sontaran. He took out the alien before it could finish you off. You’re lucky. Not many others were.”

“Yeah, lucky.” The morphine was already starting to dissipate, but she didn’t let on. “And what happened? Where’s the Doctor?”

“He was here a few minutes ago, said he’d be back in a short while. Damn near had to drag him out of the room when we were trying to remove that bullet,” the officer explained as he adjusted her I.V. “Now, be careful not to pull this out. You lost a bit of blood, but luckily not enough to need a transfusion. You need some fluids, though.”

Biting through the pain and nausea, Freya asked, “What about the Sontarans?”

The sound of approaching voices cut off whatever the officer was about to say. Martha and Donna walked in, their expressions worried and slightly apprehensive. Donna took one look at Freya and visibly relaxed while Martha took over for the other officer, checking over Freya’s vitals. “Well, you’re looking much better,” Martha said confidently. “Doctor’s moving the TARDIS. Said he had better equipment to finish fixing you up.”

Donna snorted. “His name may be Doctor, but that doesn’t mean he always knows what he’s doing,” she commented, plopping into a chair nearby. “Scared us, you did, when we found out you’d been hurt. The Doctor looked about ready to panic before they had him removed. You alright?”

Letting her hand drift down to the large swath of gauze covering her leg, Freya tried to get a feel for how much damage was done to her thigh before Martha swatted her hand away. Wait? Martha didn’t smell awful anymore. “I’m fine, but nobody seems to want to explain what happened to the Sontarans. Care to let me in on the secret?”

Martha and Donna looked at one another cautiously. It was Martha who decided to share the events after Freya had been knocked unconscious. “After we invaded the warehouse, the Doctor found me, as in the real me, strapped to a machine. The machine was set up so that the Sontarans could use a clone with my memories to take my place. They were able to gain access to UNIT from the inside that way. From the clone we found out that the gas the Sontarans had been using was clone feed.”

This peeked Freya’s curiosity. “They wanted to make this world their new cloning world?”

Martha nodded. “We were able to get back to Ratigan Academy using the transport that was in the warehouse. The Doctor built an atmospheric converter to burn all the gas away, thus destroying the Sontaran’s plans. Of course, they didn’t like that one bit.”

While Martha was talking, Freya motioned for Donna to come closer. She gestured towards the other side of the room for her bag that was sitting on a makeshift table nearby. She hauled it into her lap, working through the lock a little slower than usual, and opened the bag. As she began pulling out random objects, she turned to Martha and asked, “What did they do? Did they launch an attack or—”

“They were going to until the Doctor, um, well he was going to…” Martha looked distinctly uncomfortable as she tried to explain.

Donna seemed to sense Martha’s reluctance and finished for her. “The bloody Space Idiot was planning on blowing himself up just to take the aliens down,” she growled out, agitation mixed with concern warring on her face.

Freya’s eyebrows shot up, but before she got the chance to ask what happened, Donna cut her off. “Luke saved the day, though. You remember, the genius kid?”

“What? Well, that’s…not what I expected. What does that mean for him, then?” This question was directed towards Martha. The look on the other woman’s face said it all, though. Freya’s mind reeled at the implications. “Luke took the Doctor’s place, didn’t he? He’s…”

“Gone, yeah,” Martha said somberly.

Pressing the heel of her hands into her eyes, rubbing them in frustration, Freya murmured, “He was just a kid.”

A sorrowful silence followed Freya’s words as Martha worked to check that everything was alright with her. Although the kid was involved, and Freya truly believed he should have been held accountable for his role in the attempted invasion, death was too cruel a punishment. He should have been incarcerated for his actions. He shouldn’t have had to die like that.

Then there was a sound Freya was not expecting coming from the corner of the makeshift medical tent. The image faded in and out and suddenly a familiar big blue box was standing just a few feet away from the edge of her cot. A few seconds later, the door flung open and a harrowed looking Doctor bounded out. “Hello all. Sorry about the wait.”

“About bloody time,” Donna bit out gruffly, giving the Doctor a good natured swat on the arm. “She’s been awake for a little while and we filled her in on what she missed, including that suicidal stunt you almost pulled.”

At this information, the Doctor seemed sheepish and slightly ashamed. “Donna, I had to save everyone.”

“I know that, you prawn! But that doesn’t mean you had to get yourself killed, too. We’d find another way.” Without another word, Donna swanned into the TARDIS.

Martha gave the Doctor a hard glare too. “She’s right. You could have died.”

The Doctor groaned and mumbled something too low for Freya to hear. He then ran back inside the TARDIS and returned a short minute later with a wheel chair. “Alright, up you come. There is better medical equipment inside the TARDIS that’ll patch you up in no time.” He then reached under Freya’s arms and, with Martha’s assistance, settled her into the wheel chair with her injured leg propped up on an extendable leg rest. Martha grabbed Freya’s bag off the bed and handed it to her before hooking the I.V. bag to a raised pole jutting out the back of the wheelchair. The Doctor pushed her into the TARDIS while Martha pulled out her phone to inform the Colonel that she was leaving to check in on her family.

As soon as he pushed Freya up the ramp towards the console, Martha shooed the Doctor away and asked, “Med Bay in the same place?”

“Yeah, should be. Although, the TARDIS does love to move things around a bit,” the Doctor said as he set coordinates. “We’re just going to stop by Donna’s so she can see her family and then I’ll drop you off at home. That alright?”

Martha nodded. “Yeah, I’ve already contacted my family and they’re doing fine. I’ll get Miss Freya here all patched while you do that.”

And with that, Martha guided wheelchair out of the room.

The trip was short and neither of the women said a thing. The nap before wasn’t long enough for Freya to heal much of anything, especially since the wound was open for a while after she lost consciousness. To say the least, she was exhausted. Martha helped Freya onto one of the beds and went off to find some equipment to repair the damage done by the bullet. When Martha returned, she was also carrying a few vials of liquid. Sitting up a bit and wincing in pain, Freya said, “No…aspirin. Allergic.”

“None of these contain aspirin,” Martha said gently as she eased the other woman back down on the bed. “The Doctor is also allergic.” As Martha said this, it gave her pause, but she shrugged it off and continued her work. “These are some mild sedatives that will let you sleep through the process.”

“Will it hurt?” Freya asked.

Martha shook her head. “No, not really. It’s not entirely comfortable though, but I figured that the sedatives would help with that.”

“Won’t work on me.” Turning towards Martha, Freya made an odd gesture. “I…burn right through it.”

Confusion crossed Martha’s features. “What do you mean?”

“Doesn’t matter. Don’t worry about sedatives; I’ve had much worse than bullet wounds before.” Freya turned away from Martha and stared at the ceiling, eyes unfocused. “Just go ahead and do it. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”


	14. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! :D Here is the next chapter. This story is un-betaed so any and all mistakes are my own.  
> Enjoy! :D  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of its characters.

The machines Martha pulled out, some so advanced that even Freya didn’t know what to make of them, repaired the torn muscle and shredded skin. Martha hadn’t been joking about the discomfort the machines caused; Freya could feel as each nerve was repaired and each layer of skin replaced and adhering to the layer underneath. It itched something terrible, this new skin. Martha must have noticed because she pulled out a jar of some sickly yellow cream from one of the cupboards nearby and smeared it on the healed skin.

The smell was odd, like vinegar mixed with menthol. As soon as Martha finished with the cream she used a small instrument that resembled a hairdryer, something that Freya wouldn’t mind taking apart and analyzing later, and waved it a few times over Freya’s healed skin. Instantly, the cream hardened and Martha scrubbed it off with a cloth.

She gave Freya a small smile as she set the hair dryer object aside. “There, just give it about ten minutes or so and your skin will be perfectly healed. Now, let me have a look at that head injury. I still can’t understand how you don’t have a concussion after the hit you took.”

A short laugh escaped Freya before she said, “Yeah, I’m not exactly normal in that respect.”

“How do you mean?”

“I’m, shall we say, a bit alien compared to what you are used to treating. Then again, maybe not.”

Martha just stared at her quizzically. “You’ve completely lost me.”

“Sorry, it’s just not easy talking about it to others without fearing their reaction. To put it simply, I’m not completely human. My skull is a bit more resilient. Actually, I’m more resilient to injury. Can normally heal injuries within a few hours’ sleep, a couple days for severe breaks so long as they are set properly.” Freya felt Martha’s hands still as she pulled her hair out of the way to check the injury.

For a few seconds it seemed she didn’t know what to say, but then Martha asked, “You’re…part alien then? What…kind of alien?” It was easy to tell that she had begun to put the pieces together in her mind. The little details falling into place.

Hesitating as Martha resumed fixing the head wound, Freya calmly stated, “Not too certain. I’ve only had a few days with my biological father and that’s not really enough time to gauge a particular understanding of his species.”

“Father…” Martha put down her tools and came to stand beside Freya. “Is…the Doctor your father.” It came out as more of a statement than a question.

“Strictly in a scientific fashion, yes. I do not regard him as such as we have only just met, but that is what I’ve known for most of my life. My mother told me all about him when I was growing up though, oddly enough, not his name. That she only told me right before she sent me off to find him,” Freya explained.

Martha didn’t move for a few moments and, for just a split second, Freya saw a hint of jealousy flash through the other woman’s eyes before she smothered it. “Your mother, is she…Rose Tyler?”

“Hole in one.”

“So, the Doctor knows then?”

This pulled Freya up short, unsure how to answer her. If she said no, what type of reaction would she get from Martha? It was obvious the woman had been in love with the Doctor at one point and she wasn’t sure how much of that feeling lingered after leaving him. Maybe she still had some strong feelings and might find Freya withholding important information from the Doctor as misleading. Then again, it was Freya’s business to discuss her parentage when she felt it necessary. “Not quite. Although, I am surprised he hasn’t guessed it yet. He and my mother had been intimate prior to their separation, but maybe it’s rare for his species to procreate. Mum never really explained that one to me.”

Martha was quiet again for several moments, her face impassive as she put several of her tools away. When she spoke, her voice was tight and controlled. “So you’re waiting for him to figure it out?”

It was a good question. Was she waiting? Or was she afraid of his reaction when he did find out? The answer wouldn’t come to her. “I don’t really know.” It was the only answer she could give her, for now.

“He will find out, you know; he’s a Time Lord and I’m sure he’s already informed you of this, but he’s also a bit of a genius.” Clearing away the rest of the equipment, Martha double checked both areas where the injuries had occurred, just in case. After a few moments, she gave Freya the all clear. “I can’t say I agree with your decision, but it has to be you who explains it all to him. However, please understand he is my friend and he’s been through a lot recently.”

“He’s not the only one,” Freya bit out harder than she meant to before backpedaling. “But, noted. Thanks for the patch up.”

Martha nodded, but didn’t say anything in return. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she watched Freya go to remove the I.V. Grabbing her hand, she said, “No, let me do that.”

Letting the other woman check her with another small machine resembling a soldering iron with a mini plunger attached, Freya waited until Martha’s eyes widened a bit before saying, “Yeah, not all human remember? Don’t worry about it.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed and eased onto the floor, her previously injured leg still a little unsteady. “Just need a kip and I should be alright for a while. I’ve had some really rotten luck recently, been spending most of my time unconscious.”

“Did something else happen to you?” Martha asked her. “If you don’t mind me asking.” She then grabbed Freya’s arm to help steady her.

“Yeah, you could say that. When I first arrived in Cardiff one of my inventions malfunctioned and tore my arm apart. Had to sleep it off in a cell. Not too pleasant, but better than some places I’ve been forced to rest in. I remember one time landing on a refuse planet and, believe me, it took _days_ for that smell to come out.” Navigating their way out of the room, the two women walked slowly towards Freya’s bedroom. By the time they made it there, the Doctor was standing just by her door, face stoic and shoulders tense.

“So, how was everything?” he asked looking at Martha.

Giving him a reassuring smile, Martha said, “Fine. She’ll make a full recovery as far as I can tell.”

“Good, good. That’s…good. Um…”

The Doctor shuffled around awkwardly and Martha took that as a silent plea for some privacy. “I’ll just leave you two to it. Freya, try not to put too much pressure on your leg for now.” And with that, she walked away, presumably for a cuppa in the galley.

They both stood there, not saying anything. Not sure what to say. The entire Sontaran situation had been sorted before she even woke up and Freya wasn’t certain how to broach the subject with the Doctor or even if she should. That, plus her discussion with Martha weighed heavily on her mind. Should she tell him now that they were alone? Should she wait until she had a better grasp on who this strange man was, besides being her biological father? So many of these questions warred with each other in her mind and she really didn’t know what to think. Fortunately, she didn’t have to say anything at all.

“So,” the Doctor said, “how are you feeling?” The moment the words were out of his mouth, he cringed. That was possibly one of the worst conversation starters, despite how straight to the point it was.

Freya leaned against the wall, shifting her weight to her good leg. “Better. Been a while since I’ve been shot, but that’s the best medical treatment I’ve had in a long while. Martha really knows her stuff.”

“Yeah. She is one of the best doctors at UNIT. I actually met her when she was still training at Royal Hope Hospital.”

Surprised, Freya asked, “Royal Hope? Never heard of it. Then again, I remember mum telling me you lot still have a royal family in this universe. We had presidents, not kings and queens.”

“Ah yes, I remember now. Met the president during the Cybermen invasion when Rose and I were still…still, been a long time since then. Who was the president when you were last there?” the Doctor asked, scratching the back of his head nervously.

She was getting slightly tired of small talk, but that seemed to be something the Doctor excelled at, as far she could tell so she went along with it. For now. “Don’t know. Been a while. We sort of left Earth in a hurry. Anyway, is Martha staying for a while or…”

“Oh, no, we’re going to wait for Donna to finish up with her family before taking Martha back to her place. I also think she wanted to take another look around the TARDIS again.” He looked down the corridor in the direction Martha had left in, knowing that she was probably having tea and possibly some nibbles as well. He did miss her, although it was for the best that she left. For _her_ , of course. She had moved on to better things, no longer having to deal with a moody Time Lord.

Nodding at his pronouncement, Freya put her hand on the doorknob to her room. “Well, you two should go catch up for a while. I’m just going to take another kip and should be right as rain afterwards.”

The Doctor gave her an odd look, but didn’t say anything. He once again shuffled awkwardly before giving Freya a short nod and leaving her at her door. Shaking her head a bit, she stepped through the doorway to her new room and leaned heavily against the door as soon as it was closed. Why couldn’t she just tell him? What was she afraid of? Maybe he wouldn’t believe her and throw her off his ship. Maybe he’d be angry. Maybe…but what was the point of worrying about what he might do versus telling him and finding out what he would actually do? He could always just check her DNA and see that she was his child.

And then there was that old niggling feeling she got sometimes. But…what if she wasn’t? What if her mother had been mistaken? No, that was ridiculous. Her abilities could not have come from anyone other than the only living Time Lord left. It was just a childhood fear rearing its ugly head again. She hated when that happened. Deep set insecurities causing her to panic over something that she really shouldn’t worry about. Focus, she told herself. Now was not the time to worry about what ifs and maybes. Now was the time to act and save her mother. She had to figure out how to save her before worrying about what the Doctor would think of being a father.

No. She didn’t have a father. He just happened to be the man that impregnated her mother. Nothing more. She couldn’t miss what she never had.

Sighing, she dragged herself away from the door and towards her very comfortable looking bed. Not even bothering to change out of her rather dirty clothes, she flopped onto her duvet and let sleep claim her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mind lost in his thoughts, the Doctor nearly collided with his former companion as he strode into the galley. “Oh! Sorry about that. Did you get yourself some tea?”

Laughing, Martha said, “Yes, and it was delightful. Maroia really does make some of the best tea this side of the Milky Way. I’ve missed it.”

The Doctor grinned. “Well, you can’t say I didn’t take us to some extraordinary places.”

“When we weren’t trapped in the past or getting shot at by angry villagers or being taken prisoner by pink puffs of fur for stepping on their holy shrine of moldy cheese, yeah, you did good.” Martha bumped shoulders with him, an equally bright grin on her face.

“Oh, yes, the purple Planisians. It wasn’t actually moldy cheese, you know. It was a—”

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve already explained it before. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way they changed from light lavender to royal purple in matter of seconds. Or the fact that they grew four times their size.”

Cringing, the Doctor muttered, “Yeah, didn’t really expect that one. Anyway, are you, you know, okay after…”

Walking over to the counter to pour another cup of tea, Martha pondered his question. “Yeah, I think I’m alright. Bit weird, though, that bit with the clone.”

“I can imagine. Had a similar experience a few regenerations back.”

“Really? I’m almost afraid to ask. I was wondering, Doctor…” Martha began, her tone suspiciously innocent.

“Yes?” The Doctor had a bad feeling about what she was about to ask.

“What’s her story?”

He blinked. Ah, he had a feeling she was going to ask about Freya. Typical Martha style, too. Straight to the point. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be evasive. “What do you mean?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “You know what I mean. Where did she come from? How did she find you? Why is she here?”

The Doctor just shrugged as he made himself a cup of tea. “She needed help, so I helped. Any reason for concern?”

“Come off it, Doctor. I know you’re just as curious about her past and I for one am curious about _how_ she found you.” Leaning forward with her elbows on the table, Martha stared the Doctor down. “From what I’ve seen so far, this girl is nothing like we’ve ever come across. Aren’t you interested?”

“Of course I’m curious about her, she’s Rose’s daughter and somehow she found her way across from another universe. That’s slightly troubling and I still need to make sure she didn’t cause any damage to the walls separating our two realities.” Rubbing his hands over his face, the Doctor sighed.

“Wow, that’s impressive.” Martha knew Freya’s story would be interesting, but she wondered just how much she had left out. The Doctor had to pick up on the discrepancies. “I thought Rose was trapped, though?”

“She still is. Or, at least that is what Freya told us.” The Doctor slumped into a chair and rested his chin on his arms. “She’s hiding something, well, a lot of somethings. I don’t think she trusts me.”

“Can we trust her? I mean, it does seem really suspicious that she claims to be the daughter of a woman that’s stuck in a parallel dimension. A dimension, may I remind you, that even you couldn’t get to. What did she say that convinced even your stubborn arse?” Martha asked, taking a sip of tea.

The Doctor pouted at Martha’s comment. “I’ll have you know that I can be quite agreeable most of the time.”

“Yeah, sure, like I believe that. I hope you remember that I used to travel with you and I’ve seen that stubbornness in action,” she quipped with a smirk.

Huffing, the Doctor quickly sobered. “It wasn’t something she said, but something she had with her. Something that I am positive Rose Tyler would never have let out of her possession unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Unless it was someone she trusted.”

Confused, Martha swirled the tea in her cup as she thought about his words. “How do you know she didn’t just drop it somewhere?”

“Martha, Freya knows things. Things that only Rose knew and, I don’t know, I just…trust her. That, plus the TARDIS seems to favor her quite a bit. Even had a room ready and waiting when she arrived.”

Martha scoffed in mock offence. “Well, now that’s just not fair.” She gave him a smile, but it quickly slid off her face with a grimace as she recalled her own experience with the ship the first time she arrived. Unfortunately, the TARDIS seemed almost as unwelcoming as her pilot at times, particularly when she first set foot on the ship. The Doctor said the TARDIS would lead her to a room she could use to wash up in, but it took well over an hour to find it. It took almost as long to find the galley when she got a bit peckish. Although she had some bad experiences onboard the TARDIS, eventually both the ship and her pilot warmed to her and Martha was glad she was back even for a short while. “So, what was it that she had with her?”

As soon as she asked him, the Doctor stilled as memories of his first meeting with Freya Tyler came back. A young woman, albeit in terrible shape, sitting inside a cell looking like she hadn’t slept in days, telling him that she was the daughter of the woman he lost to a world he could never return. To say he was shocked would have been the understatement of the century. His mind whirled with questions along with heartbreaking thoughts. Rose had moved on, found someone else, and had a child with them but that also didn’t make sense. The Doctor just couldn’t imagine his Rose finding someone new so he banished the thoughts and kept his head, asking the young woman questions about who she was and why she needed his help. When she pulled out the key, he felt like his whole world stopped. It was proof that she was indeed Rose’s child. The more he looked at her, the more he could see Rose in her. From the slightly wide mouth to her brown eyes and even the way she talked sounded just like Rose at times. Well, and Jackie too, but he tried not to think about Rose’s slap happy mother. “She showed me Rose’s key, something I know for a fact she never would have let go of unless it was absolutely necessary. I don’t trust Freya implicitly as we’ve just met but I can’t help believing in her.”

He knew it didn’t make much sense, but if his TARDIS took a shine to her then there must be a reason. As he drank some more of his tea, he became aware of Martha’s eyes on him. After everything he had put her through it always amazed him that she was willing to give him a second chance. He regretted the way he had treated her during her tenure on his ship and he would always be thankful that she kept him alive even when it seemed he was trying his damndest to end his own life.

Noticing that she had lost him to his thoughts, Martha took the time to observe her friend and she noticed that he seemed a lot happier than when she last saw him. Donna was good for him and she just hoped that Freya would be who she claimed to be. She wasn’t the sort to trust someone immediately and she was slightly put off by the other woman’s reluctance to explain her true parentage to the Doctor.

They lapsed into comfortable silence as they finished their tea. Eventually, the Doctor got up to leave, but was stopped by Martha. “So, she met Jack?”

“Ah, yes, well, um, yeah. Although, she was acting…strange when I first met her.” He leaned back in his chair, tilting his head in concentration. “Oddly enough, she seemed to be keeping her distance from him.”

Martha laughed. “Wow, you mean to tell me she wasn’t swayed by the Harkness charm?”

“They seemed on good terms as far as I can tell, it’s just that she seemed…wary.” Scratching the back of his head, he said, “Well, she was in pretty bad shape when we met. Something about her invention malfunctioning and what not.”

“Ah, yeah, she talked about that earlier.”

“Did she now?” The Doctor was genuinely surprised, but Freya seemed to be opening up a bit more now that she’d settled in a bit. He wondered what else she would shed some light on after she woke up. Getting up, the Doctor walked over to the sink and quickly rinsed out his cup before turning back to his former companion. “Well, why don’t you get something to eat. It’s been a long day and I’m sure you’re famished. I’ll be in the console room if you need me.”

“Yeah, alright. And thanks, Doctor, for coming when I called.”

Smiling, he said, “Anytime, Martha Jones. And thank you for helping me keep a level head. I’ll see you in a bit.”

And with that, Martha found herself alone in the galley again. She stared at the doorway as she finished her tea and murmured to herself, “I just hope you can keep a level head when she tells you the truth, Doctor.”


	15. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! I am still here! :D I was just taking a break from writing for a while. This chapter was actually almost done a few months ago but then something happened while I was saving it to my flashdrive and, well...I lost most of that chapter. As you can imagine, that was disheartening for me and so I felt it was a good time for a break from fanfiction writing. But I'm back! However, I cannot guarantee when the next update will be because I don't have a consistent update schedule. So, yeah. Annnnnyway. Thank you so much for your support! :D I greatly appreciate it! Okay, so down to business. I do not have a beta for this fic, so any and all mistakes are my own. If you see a mistake, please PM me on tumblr or leave a note in the reviews. Thank you so, so much again for being such wonderful readers and for patiently waiting for my updates! So much love for you all! :D  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of its characters.  
> Enjoy! :D

When she came to, Freya was surprised that she hadn’t dreamed at all. Shrugging it off, she rolled onto her side and stared at the wall for a moment. Her body ached all over but the pain in her thigh had diminished to only a dull throb. The day’s events were still fresh in her mind and she wondered if anything could have been different had she been there to help the Doctor, but she realized that train of thought would get her nowhere. She had long since learned that she couldn’t always save the day and sometimes people died. Life wasn’t fair, but it was never meant to be. It was a lesson she learned the hard way over the years.

Pulling herself to her feet, she surveyed her new room, impressed by the all the décor and design. It was definitely alien compared to anything she had ever stayed in. There were several different gadgets around the room that she hadn’t noticed before. In fact, there were several extra machine parts and tools that had not been there when she first arrived. Who put them there?

As much as she wanted to investigate and possibly tinker with some of the machinery, Freya knew that she had more important things she needed to be doing. She walked into her en suite and took a good look at herself in the large mirror. The first thing she noticed were the dark circles under her eyes. They were a shade lighter since she’d last taken the time to look at herself.

Must be all the rest, she thought.

Her skin also appeared healthier and her cheeks less gaunt, but even with all the sleep she’d been getting recently her body was still in bad shape. She was worn out and appeared much older than she’d ever looked before and that was saying something. Hopefully, with enough rest and sustenance, she would regain a healthier weight. When she looked down at her hands she noticed that the bones stood out, making them appear claw-like. It was disconcerting how she hadn’t even taken the time to look at herself properly just to see the damage she’d done pushing her body to its limits.

She could practically hear her mother chastising her for not taking better care of herself. There were plenty of times when she should have rested an extra day or even just a few hours, but everything in her told her to keep going, keep searching for the man with the big blue box. Rest and recovery had become a luxury she hadn’t allowed herself until she found the Doctor.

Freya took stock of the physical changes since she left the other dimension and of the few things that hadn’t changed. Her hair was a lost cause, as it had always been. She had eventually given up trying to tame it over the years. As she pulled a brush through it, detangling many of the knots that had cropped up, she contemplated whether or not to cut it. It must have been months since she cut off a good three inches of it and the fly aways were getting obnoxious. Well, that was a decision for another day.

She washed her face and scrubbed off some excess dirt from her skin until it was slightly blotchy and red, making the light freckles on her cheeks stand out. Once she was satisfied, she removed the ruined outfit from earlier and walked over to her closet for some new clothes. She settled for some dark blue jeans and a light purple v-neck t-shirt. Her hair was plenty long enough for her to pull it into a braid just over her shoulder and keep most of her hair out of her eyes. Walking over to her bed, she realized that she must have left her jacket, boots, and bag in the medical room when Martha was fixing her up but when she turned around they were sitting on the chair by her vanity. She was certain that they hadn’t been there before she went into her en suite and Freya was beginning to suspect that the TARDIS must have moved them.

Frowning, she made a mental note to discuss the ship’s capabilities with the Doctor. Pulling on the jacket and boots, she grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. Her thigh was still throbbing a bit, but it wasn’t too bad. She had managed with much worse. Taking one last look around the room, she made her way out the door, limping only just a bit.

It was the first time she had taken the time to look around the interior of the ship without being too engrossed in her own thoughts or exhaustion. There was the same coral motif throughout the hallways as was in the console room. The medical room had been surprising different compared with the rest of the ship. It was mostly white and very sterile in appearance. She liked the design of the coral as it felt a little warmer than the medical room had been.

As she turned a corner, she was surprised to see Martha just exiting a room at the very end of that hallway. She grimaced a bit, unsure how to approach the other woman. Fortunately, Martha was the first to say something.

“Hey, how do you feel?”

“Good. A little sore, but nothing I can’t handle. Thanks for earlier. You’re one hell of a doctor, Dr. Jones,” Freya said, her tone much warmer than it had been earlier that day.

Martha seemed to pick up on this and smiled at her. “That is good to know and thank you. It’s something I take great pride in.”

They lapsed into silence before Freya nodded down the hall. “I was just heading to the galley for a bite to eat.”

“Oh, okay. I’m just going to go check in on the Doctor in the console room. Donna should be done soon.”

“Okay. I’ll be in there in a few minutes.” Freya gave a tight nod and was about to start off for the galley before Martha stopped her.

“Um, the galley is actually this way,” she said, humor in her eyes.

Freya blinked. “Oh, well. Yeah, my sense of direction is unfortunately not the best sometimes. Um, thanks.” Blushing a bit at the mistake, she headed the other direction and smiled tightly at Martha as she passed her again.

She made quick work when she stepped into the galley, grabbing a bottle of some fruit drink and the makings for a couple of sandwiches. The one downside to being able to heal faster was the massive appetite that came afterwards. She could eat almost three meals worth of food in one sitting sometimes. That also meant that the few times she didn’t have any food at all were almost unbearable. Luckily, she wasn’t as hungry as she sometimes was after a major injury and ate as quickly as she could without choking on her food. Her stomach clenched in pain as she ate; it had been a while since she had plenty of food to eat and her body was still recovering. She didn’t stop eating though. Her body needed sustenance and although she could often just ignore it, now was not one of those times and she would take advantage of the food available.

That was something she hadn’t really considered when she first arrived in this universe. Food was often scarce in many of the places she landed in and sometimes she would have to go days, even a week without food. That was one of the perks about being only half human; her body didn’t need food as often. Still, it took a toll on her body eventually as it began to suffer the ill effects of malnutrition. She had lost a lot of weight in the last few months.

When she finished her food, Freya placed the dishes into the sink and quickly washed them before heading towards the console room, grabbing a few extra snacks and two bottles of water for later just in case. Even if she had access to a sentient time ship, she wasn’t taking any chances.

Voices drifted out of the console room as she drew closer; Donna must have returned. As she entered, Martha was just saying goodbye and thanking the Doctor for his help. Donna gave Martha a quick hug before the three of them noticed Freya’s appearance. Both of the other women gave her smiles, but the Doctor appeared a bit more guarded as she came over to them.

Freya dropped her bag on the chair and said, “So, everything sorted then?”

“Yup,” Martha said wistfully. “Thank you for your help earlier. I really appreciated the assistance. We really couldn’t have done it without you.” She was speaking to all three of them.

The Doctor grinned broadly at her. “Anytime, Martha.”

“Well, I have to get back. Somebody needs me,” Martha said, holding up her left hand to show off the diamond ring on her finger. “I have missed this, but I love my life here. Thank you, Doctor. Donna. Freya. I’ll be seeing you.”

With those parting words, Martha made her way to the door.

Unfortunately for her, the TARDIS had other ideas. The doors swung shut and the TARDIS gave a mighty lurch that almost threw Freya to the ground. Grappling for purchase on the side of the console, she tried to stay upright as the rest of the crew was thrown about. Donna rolled into her and knocked her over, grunting in pain as she slammed into the grating against her healing leg. She heard Donna barely squawk out an apology before the Doctor tripped over her while trying to navigate around the console. By the time the shaking stopped, Martha was clinging to a coral strut while the other three of them were in a tangled heap on the floor. Donna was cursing loudly, shoving the Doctor off of her while trying to keep from crushing Freya with her weight.

“What the bloody hell was that about?!” Donna rounded on the Doctor, who was standing in a slight daze before he stumbled towards the monitor. “Oi, Space man!”

“I don’t know!” he cried out, voice high and squeaky. “I don’t know what she’s doing.”

“You take me home, Doctor! I mean it!” Martha had finally let go of the coral strut and helped Freya to her feet. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you take me home right now.”

The Doctor was gaping at the console, lines forming between his eyes as he scratched the back of his head in confusion. “I don’t know what happened. Something must be wrong.”

“Like what?” Freya grunted out as she rubbed her side, noting with a grimace that she had a few new bruises to add to her growing list of injuries recently. “Mom told me the TARDIS had a mind of her own. Could she have a reason for doing this?”

“Maybe, but she shouldn’t be able to do that. It’s impossible!” He was still staring open mouthed at his ship’s console, hands fluttering absently over the many dials and knobs.

“You know,” Freya muttered, “you really should consider using a different word from now on. Improbable seems more appropriate. Unlikely may work even better.”

“Oi! It should be impossible—”

“And yet it isn’t.”

The Doctor glared at her, his bottom lip poking out in dismay as he fiddled with the monitor to check their status. “Yes, well, anyway. We seem to have landed somewhere, but I can’t be absolutely sure considering her read outs are slightly unclear on our destination.”

“That, or she’s mad at you. I’m pretty sure she’s mad at you,” Martha quipped.

“What?! What would she be mad at me for?”

Donna raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I could think of a few things, Spaceman. Starting with the last time she showered you in sparks when you tried to replace one of her thermo-doublings or whatever it was.”

“Thermo coupling?” Freya asked.

“Thermo-modulator coupling.” The Doctor had finished with the read outs and was leaning against one of the coral struts, frowning at the monitor. “Either way, I still can’t figure out why we’re here, or why she brought us wherever ‘here’ is.”

“Only one way to find out, then.” Donna was already striding towards the door, Martha right behind her.

Just as she was about to push the door open, Donna was stopped by the Doctor’s voice. “Just a moment. I want to check if the atmosphere is even breathable before we just stroll on out, okay? So long as the TARDIS cooperates with me.” He glared at the ceiling.

“Well, hurry up then! I want to see what the TARDIS thought was so important that she drove herself.”

Smiling to herself, Freya watched the exchange with amusement. It was…comforting. Donna was more than a match for the Doctor and could obviously hold her own in any situation. She had a feeling that back when she used to travel with the Doctor, Martha was the same, but with her own unique flare. They both kept him on his toes and on task. From her preliminary observations, it was becoming obvious that he was much more reliant on his friends than he let on. Of course, her mother had already insinuated that fact once before, but she couldn’t remember the exact incident.

Freya’s memory was remarkable, something she prided herself on, but every so often things sort of fell through the cracks. That was her mother’s DNA showing through, not that there was anything wrong with that, but still, she would be lying if she said it didn’t get frustrating once in a while. Tidbits of information that would seem innocuous at the time, but sometimes crucial later on, would get blurred or forgotten completely.

Quickly grabbing her bag from where it had fallen on the floor, Freya strolled over to where Donna stood tapping her foot impatiently. Martha grinned at her, before rolling her eyes at the tall alien muttering to himself by the monitor.

“Wonder what’s out there,” Freya said to the other two women, her gaze on the door. “Has to be important for the TARDIS to whisk us all along for the ride.”

Martha nodded before breathing out an exasperated sigh. “As much as I missed this, I have a life on Earth now and a fiancé, too. I can’t just up and run off with the Doctor anymore and besides, I really love my life now. Then again…”

“It’s exciting, though.” Donna joined in, a smile forming on her lips. “I mean, it is inconvenient that the ship took off without warning, but it is thrilling.”

“Yeah,” Martha agreed. “I just wasn’t expecting it, is all. Thing is, I let this all go. After everything that happened after…I knew I had to leave. As much as I loved this life, I love my life on Earth and I can’t leave my family like that again. I don’t want to leave them like that again. I mean, Donna, you are built for this life. I can tell you thrive on the adventure and I did too, once, but I guess I’m just not like that anymore. I realized that I still had so much I wanted to do with my life and I couldn’t do that with the Doctor, so I let it go. I do miss it, though, but I stand by my decision.”

The other two women nodded, each knowing just how harsh the universe could be. Freya’s mind strayed to many of her own experiences and trials of just surviving a harsh reality where the very ground beneath her feet could have been ripped out from underneath her, sometimes literally. She could only imagine what had brought Martha to her final decision to leave. Maybe it was several little things, or maybe it was something so large that she had to finally confront all the problems that she had been burying for sake of the Doctor. It reminded her of the time her mother hid a very important bit of information from her during one of their travels that lead to a falling out between them that lasted a few years. Eventually, Freya came around again, but it was hard to find it in herself to forgive her mother’s decision.

Sometimes she forgot that her mother was still human, at least emotionally. The moments when Rose tried to protect her from their reality, although it was a road paved with good intentions, it had led to other consequences and several people around them suffered for it. It hadn’t been an easy decision for her mother to make, and could have been seen as very selfish, but she wanted to protect her daughter from those who would hurt her. It reminded Freya of her grandmother’s desire to protect her children and grandchild.

Freya smiled to herself, realizing she had once again gotten lost in her own thoughts.

Donna and Martha were discussing and comparing their own adventures with the Doctor, laughing at each other’s stories and the strange antics of their mutual friend. The man himself was muttering and cursing under his breath as he fiddled with several knobs on the console before tugging on his hair a bit in dismay. It was actually quite amusing to watch.

“What were you planning to do when you got home?” Donna asked Martha, catching Freya’s attention again. “Going to call up your beau?”

Martha smiled and shook her head. “No, I already did that and told him I was alright. I don’t know, probably soak in the bath or watch some telly. Not very exciting, I know, but I think after this I’ll need a night off. Maybe take a few days for a holiday. Dunno.”

“Haven’t been on a holiday for a while. Well, at least not one where I haven’t ended running for my bloody life.”

“Ha! Yeah, I remember those adventures. I loved the running, but I also loved a little downtime afterwards.”

“It’s just one adventure after another with him. I just want a day or two at a spa getting pampered.”

Martha laughed and leaned against one of the coral struts. “Wouldn’t mind one of those, myself. There is this great place we found in the Mextaorian Galaxy that has these hot springs that did the most amazing things for my skin.”

“Hmm, maybe you can take a break with us? We could make him take all three of us somewhere. Him against the three of us? He wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Freya considered Donna’s offer. She wouldn’t mind having a day or two at a spa after these long months, but she knew it would be incredibly difficult for her to relax with her burdens weighing her down. If anything, she might become more stressed due to inactivity. She felt that she needed to be working towards a solution to create a bridge between the two dimensions and find her mother before it collapsed or worse.

“Well, as far as I can tell, the atmosphere is breathable and sustainable for human life. No known toxins or pathogens in the air.” The Doctor had finally finished his scans and bounded over to them, a spring in his step. “So, ready to see just what is waiting for us out there?”

His enthusiasm rubbed off on Martha and Donna and even got Freya’s spirits up. She stepped up next him at the doors, heart pounding a little faster than before. “Well, no time like the present.”

The Doctor smiled at them before pushing the doors open. Time for a new adventure.


End file.
